Here's my dream box, for recording bands live for a local TV show (formerly a radio show): An external box, with 16 channels in, a firewire connection to my Dell notebook, and SAW Studio (or Cool Edit) laying down 16 channels at once so later I can adjust the mix to my liking outside the impossible acoustics of any given club. The inputs would be 1/4" or RCA to accept lines from a mixer's auxilliary sends. Or, while I'm dreaming, a nice digital mixer with this feature built in would be nice, although terribly expensive. :-)

Has anyone ever seen such a magic box?

This :

Tascam FW-1884

gives you 8 24/96 analog channels, plus 8 adat channels.

Add this :

Behringer ADA8000

and you get 16 analog tracks / mic preamps, and cool motorized faders.

mlejeune,

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction. Have you used this equipment you mention? I'm a bit confused how you'd control the levels of all 16 inputs if you added the Behringer device. Does the Tascam have a switch to make the sliders control 9 - 16, or do you control those levels completely in the computer? Any idea if SAW Studio can operate with this equipment? If this will allow me to lay down 16 simultaneous track on the computer, I'm golden. And it's within the realm of sorta kinda affordable.