the behringer is fine for me (i got it unexpectedly free with a midi keyboard and ableton live lite ) and i'm only using it for monitoring when djing, so unless you want to get a decent one, this would be fine i suppose

Well I can only speak about the Presonus Firebox. It would not run on my laptop, no matter what I did, I even tried a FW express card but without any luck. In that case I can't say it's a bad interface (it's no m-audio) or bad drivers. It would run perfectly on any other computer I have tried it on, just not on my laptop!
A friend of mine had the same problems with his Motu, and I mean, Motu is the state of the art regarding mobile audio interfaces!

So I would still recommend the Presonus Firebox. It's a great device, and you can find used ones for about 200 bucks. Just be aware that in some circumstances it might not run smoothly, as might any other fw interface.

i had a m-audio that needed a TI firewire chipset.  what ever is in my computer wouldn't work.

i have a prosounus firebox now and it works just fine with the built in, which is good because the firewire card i installed died.

Some interfaces run just fine on any FW400 chipset which leads me to believe that it's more a matter of flawed audio interfaces or drivers. Never the less, I keep seeing TI chipset being recommended in general.

http://www.korg.co.uk/products/digital_ … /dr_d4.asp

This. Its not a USB one, but you can get them pretty cheap on the eBay, they are great for guitar and have two inputs for recording in stereo. Also got a brilliant built in mic and have a USB connection. Can also be used as an effects unit/mixer when you play live. Pretty Rad man. Pretty Rad.

i thought i recommended an NI ak-1, which sounds great on guitar.. but it might be outside your price range.

hey, the focusrite USB is about 200 dollars. I have the firewire version (focusrite saffire LE) which is more expensive, but i need it 'cause of the quantity of inputs/outputs. It have the same preamps.

I would really disagree on this, just search for "Firewire problem audio interface" and you'll get hundreds of forum threads about that. Apparently there is a complex set of problems you can have with firewire, lousy FW chips like the dreaded Ricoh, and driver problems... I tried to get my Firebox to run on many different systems and I never succeeded. Theoretically Macbook pros should guarantee good compatibility with FW interfaces, but with most other manufacturers it's a matter of luck finding a laptop that will work (the only ones that might work fine are the ADK laptops).
USB on the other hand seems to have less compatibility problems.

Second that. see it like that, it's better to spend 200 now, than to spend 100 now and then have to spend 200 more next year after months of frustration.

Where did my message go?
Anyway, I said that for thsi price, the Behringer is OBVIOUSLY not good.
You need to look at a minimum of 200 USD investment to get a good card.

Just to clarify a bit here, chipsets of FW400 is rarely (I would say never, but just in case) a problem. And since most laptops are equipped with FW400 you shouldn't need to worry. FW800 however is a different story. There I strongly recommend the Texas Instruments chipset.
Also, USB should be fine for interfaces with 2-4 inputs and outputs. But it depends on the audio drivers and how well the computer and OS is set up.

There's several things to consider:
Which OS are you on? some Interfaces work better on Win, others on Mac.
Generally speaking Firewire is better than USB (less load on the CPU) but also more expensive and most win laptops have bad firewire chipsets, so you'll just end up with a lot of problems.

Usually the price depends on the following qualities:
- how good the preamps and the converters are (read some reviews and user opinions to find out more about it)
- What resolutions and bitrares does it support (some go as far as 196K and 24bit) Depending on the work you will have to do with it you will need more or less...
- how many inputs and outpus it has (how many do you think you need/will need)
- if they have midi or not (do you need it?)
- if they have onboard DSP (most of them don't)

And there is some nice to have features depending on the use you will make of it:
- real Hi-Z inputs for e-guitars and basses
- zero latency monitor: input audio does get routed internally to the headphones without going through the computer, so you don't have any latency. This is useful if you plan on working with overdubs a lot.
- small and sturdy casing: some are made of cheap plastic and are quite big (like the E-mu 0404) some others have metal enclosures and are quite compact... again, depends on what you need to do with it.

This said there is few good usb 2.0 interfaces
E-mu 0404 (good preamps and converters for the class, has zero latency monitoring) costs about 200€ here in Europe (this is the one I own)
Tascam US144-MKII seems to be a nice interface, costs less than the E-mu but preamps are not as good

And there is several USB1.0 ones:
Focusrite Saffire 6 USB: is more for DJs than to make music has some average quality specs (not as good as the higher end Saffires)
Motu just released a new small usb1.0 interface called MicroBook. Motu makes some great audio hardware, but I don't know much about this one.
The newer Cakewalk/Roland interfaces seem to be quite good, albeit a bit pricey
just to name a few...

so i wouldn't need one with the Focusrite?

It does. Instrument and line level inputs have different impedance.
You can connect a guitar to a line input but you will loose signal and frequency. A DI box in between is then highly recommended.
The Focusrite interface however is equipped with instrument inputs.

thanks you guys for the advice, i'm a real noob in this area so i really appreciate it

^ this, so hard. Especially with musical instruments - if you buy cheap, you'll end up buying twice.