Ed...I forgot...what Mac do you use? I have an old G4 I bought brand new back when they first came out. It's only a 450Mhz single processor but it can record like my hotdog system. If you are a songwriter, and you like to work your craft alone (like most of do), your Mac is a recording monster. Invest in a Frontier Design Wave center card for Mac. It's only about $299.00. It gives you 2x2 MIDI, lightpipe, SPDF ins and outs in an unflappable package. AD/DA converters. Then all you need is your recording software. Don't get blinded by all the whistles and bells that are out there for home studio folks...ya don't need it! Marketing tells you you do but the human hear can only hear so much...I've been Cakewalk since 1996 and have never had a failure or glitch of anykind from these components. I'm sure there's equal stuff out there for Mac. Then all you need is a couple 7200RPM Western Digital or Seagate (with 8MB cache) hard drives and you are FLYIN'!!

[This message has been edited by bluezguy (edited 10-09-2005).]