[MarkGenero]

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions. It's been very informative. In the end I went to my local guitar center on the "day after thanksgiving" special and got the avalon 737 sp for 1660. couldn't believe it. even cheaper than the mercenary unit. They didn't stock lucid so I went with the apogee rosetta a/d converter and got it for 900. I immediately went home and put down an acoustic guitar and vocal track through this setup and couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Smooth" and "airy" are the words that come to mind. For the first time my stuff has a "professional quality" to the sound. And that's just the first, basic raw attempt. I'm very pleased. Thanks so much for the advice, you guys are an incredible resource. Thanks also to digi too for this board.

Mark