pc audio interface or standalone recorder

Im trying to make choise between the something like Korg d3200 and sound card with same count of inputs. Is it just throwing money when buying standalone recorder or not? All i want to do with that equipment is mastering 10 outputs (8 outs card + 2 stock outputs) from mpc 2000xl + 2-4 inputs for turntable\synths.
What i should choose to feel comfortable and non-limited?
P.S. never used software, really scared of it

if you dont have a computer that can handle recording 10 inputs at once then the sound card wont help much... however you could still 2 track stuff in on almost any machine.

I say get a piece of software like audacity (which is free) just to get the hang of software. It's super easy to use and easy to see what's going on. Then once you feel comfortable with that... maybe start looking at some more complicated ones like cubase. Software is not that bad once you get used to what you're looking at.

I used to think that standalone recorders were much more easy to use and sounding as good as software. I had a Boss BR600 for a few months, and then switched to software and now i think that software is a really better choice.

Comparing to a standalone recorder, you have a lot more of possibilities( for effects, sequencing,VST...). Maybe if you sequence everything in the MPC and have good hardware effects, a recorder can be a good choice. But for the price, I think a good soundcard is a better choice. If you already have a computer, try Reaper, it's a free DAW, and see if you like it.

i have 4.0 ghz core2duo e8400, 4gb of ram, i think that would be enough to handle 10 channels.. korg d3200 costs about 500 bucks + 100 for postage (yeah yeah, im using mail forwarding to get stuff to russia) and sound card.. i haven even looked for one.
money is not a really prob, i just will need to sell some unnessesary things=\
now what i exactly need: eq'ing for each stereochannel, separate control for effects on each stereochannel and compression for each stereochannel. software has to many extras i dont need, i ll buy standalone recorder

DrunkenBear wrote:i have 4.0 ghz core2duo e8400, 4gb of ram, i think that would be enough to handle 10 channels.

that's more than enough and then some, that pc wont even break sweat doing 10 channels