PC Laptop for live recording

[The Seventh Word]

I’ll try to be concise:

I’m in the market for a laptop-based recording system. I need at least 8 simultaneous mic inputs. I’m going the PC route, considering: a) newer Pentium-based laptop (at least 1Ghz processor, 256 mb ram); b) Echo Audio’s Layla interface.

Questions: a) Would an external hard drive be strongly advisable?
b) Intending to do my mixing by software, is there a good reason to have a mixer instead of a multi channel mic-pre (e.g. DigiMAX) – i.e., am I likely to have latency issues?
c) If the laptop I end up with is equipped with FireWire inputs, should I lean towards the MOTU 828 instead?

Thanks for your advice and opinions –

Is

[DAS]

Some concise answers:

A) Yes
B) Depends - is latency really an issue for you if the recording is to be done live?
C) Firewire is a great way to get many channels of audio into a laptop at once. The 828 is a fantastic interface (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/828/), but it only has two mic preamps. You'd need to add outboard preamps, or a mixer with preamps. The 896 (http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/896/), however, has 8 preamps and can record at 96 kHz, plus it has even higher quality converters than the 828. Food for thought.

[David Klausner]

One other thing I would add about a firewire interface on a PC is to be sure the firewire port they use has the Texas Instruments chip, and not the NEC chip which won't work properly with the 828.