seriously consider that Reaper link I posted ealier for software. It's not a bad program and is free to use - $50.00 if you are going to keep using it. Fullers is a cool store for guitars, but for digital audio recording you will do much better online than anywhere in Houston. And for God's sake don't ask anyone working at a music store in Houston about digital recording gear as they will probably have no idea what they are talking about. I agree that Firewire is better than USB for audio interfaces, but if he isn't going to be using this equipment on a laptop PCI is still the best (ie, lowest latency) way to go for an audio interface. Unfortunately the market is bigger for consumer audio gear than for professional gear so must of the stuff you will be looking at will be of the firewire variety. My favorite shop online for digital audio recording is http://www.jrrshop.com/ nice folks, same prices or better than all the rest and honest. If he wants this for recording and composition and you want to get him some nice software Cubase SX is going to be the way to go. If you want a full blown suite of software my personal favorite is Samplitude Pro 10 but you will be looking at closer to a grand for that setup. Cheers, Brock
