After a bit of advice-recording

Hey guys I been giving my current setup some thought of late. Heres the deal
currently I have my mpc runnin thru my mackie mixer and in to my (at deaths door) laptop
Ive never been into software that much but as I had the laptop I thought I should use it for now.
Now the thing is the laptop really cant cope to be expected I guess as it wasnt up to much when i started
with it.
I been thinkin about coppin a multi tracker on the cheap as so many people have made the swap to software.
So heres my options
Keep the mixer and use a hard disk recorder?
dump the mixer an you the bit of change to go towards a multi track recorder?
Or use the mixer in conjuction with a multi tracker?

I could go software which I know alot of people on here would probably urge me to do, but disregarding the fact im not really a software type of person, i dont really enjoy using (although I cant really dispute how easy it makes some jobs) I guess I would to need a new laptop/pc as well as a proper interface which could become quite pricey.

Im willin to trade off the ease of use of software if it means I can get a cheap deal on some older hardware that arguably will have a better sound than the software in my price range bare in mind I would need more than just software as I would really need a new system for a DAW.

Rolands vs series seem to be notorious for being difficult to learn. I was thinkin tho as I am not on a time scale I would be willin the bite the bullet with one of these if the sound quality was pretty good.
Ive also be lookin at the yamaha aw16g but ive heard mixed results on how they sound although they are meant to
be really easy to learn. Theres a few otheres I been lookin at but i'd really appreciate some input from some of you heads on here that used to use this gear (even if you no longer use hardware)
thanks guys

I'll make this brief and to the point as possible. Don't believe that hardware disk recorders sound better than their daw counterparts. With something such as a multitrack hd recorder, you're stuck with something that's considered "proprietary" and your options for expandability are VERY limited.

With a dedicated highend audio interface coupled with a fast/up-to-date computer and a good daw program, you can dictate how good you want things to sound and perform.

Check out some of the pros and cons with what you want to get into, it'll save the headaches in the long run.

Thanks for your help man I deffo feel what your sayin. One thing I should of made clearer was
Was that while you can get computer based daws that are better than hardware I think I'm my situation it would come at quite a price. I'm in the UK an there's quite good deals at the minute. I was basically thinkin I could grab some hard ware for maybe slightly less than the cost of the interface an then I wouldn't need to pay for new computer and software until I out grew the hardware

Waste of money IMO. Computers are so well priced these days it make no sense to go backwards. You can get a second hand Mac and interface for well under $1500

Just looked at some of the UK prices average price of macbooks for example were around 650 can get older models for less I'm sure tho
I looked at an rme interface as I know people who use them that was 460 to be fair I'm not really sure how much view tend to for
All I'm all you were pretty close with your estimation I made it 1700 us although u could maybe opt for a cheaper interface
Here's the thing I seen a Roland vs16 for under 500 us
That's 1100 uk vs 300 UK

I don't wanna turn this into a hardware vs software debate nor come across like I'm attacking anyone's point of view but is the hardware that much of a ballache to work with?
I have never really used computers a great deal in the past an I'm curious what was it that made you make the switch? I understand that those of you that do this for a living need the fastest work flow but I'm not under this constraint

Please don't mind my super spaz sentences. Lol I'm using my phone with predictive text
Even more reason for me not to be let loose on a computer haha

yowordiagree wrote:I have never really used computers a great deal in the past an I'm curious what was it that made you make the switch?

Workflow is just a niche in the principles of daw recording. Where things greatly differ, is the ability to use dsp processing (meaning you can take advantage of s/w plugins and whatnot) and editing features that far surpass h/w altogether.

thanks for all your input guys
I have been lookin at the software route and I have a few questions. I know most of the popular daws
are capable of what im trying to achieve. But what im really interested in is things like latency and sound quality.
I have possibly secured a multiface 2 for a bargain so I was thinkin that may help with the latency issues.
Would I be right in thinkin it is more down the the converters than the daw its self that determines audio quality?

Does anyone have any recomendations on which daw to use? Bare in mind it will not be used for creating music
but for for editing what ive made on the mpc.
Sorry meant to say i was lookin at windows based daws. I have been lookin at cubase which seems to have a large following although I understand popularity does not always equal the best option in your situation.
I guess im really askin for a software replacement to some of the multitracks I was previously lookin at.
For me its more about editing and effects than composing
thanks again guys

oh one other thing i was wondering is there any particular software daw that takes advantage of multi cores yet?
Although this is overkill pehaps right now I would like to have something that can last a little while as I have been thinkin along the lines of a new pc an was lookin at the i5 cpus

yowordiagree wrote:Does anyone have any recomendations on which daw to use? Bare in mind it will not be used for creating music
but for for editing what ive made on the mpc.
Sorry meant to say i was lookin at windows based daws. I have been lookin at cubase which seems to have a large following although I understand popularity does not always equal the best option in your situation.

That following is based largely because cubase has earn a rep for superior midi control.

thanks for the input now its time to get my head round some of these different
softwares to try and find one that caters best to what I wanna do!