...so it looks like the clock on the Gina is dying or has issues - we're getting drop-outs and jittering unless we turn off the ASIO drivers... which is bad for synchronisation.

A new PC Audio interface is therefore required - but which one?

We've been looking at the Tascam FW1804, to give an idea of the ballpark we're playing in (budget end only, I'm afraid...) - anything else we should check out? We need plenty of inputs, so the little "Drive bay" breakout boxes aren't good enough - we need something that can either be rack mounted or occupy desk space. The former is obviously preferable...

hmmmm I'd have a look at the Yamaha O1X M-Lan (uses Firewire) looks good and as Yamaha just bought Steinberg should synch with Cubase very elegantly in the future. It looks surperb.

Or how about the RME Fireface - Firewire 35 input and 28 output channels 24 bit 192khz. IU rack mountable with 4 front panel XLR mic pres with phantom power with high z jacks and 8 balanced TRS jack inputs and 8 out on the back panel. It's about a grand.

A control surface would be ideal I suppose. mackie do some nice ones, but that Tascam you're thinking of seems like a good idea - and at £899 from http://www.turnkey.co.uk - www.turnkey.co.uk it's not a bad price.

Happy hunting.

Follow the link I provided and you'll see that Digital Village are selling it for £459.99

Thanks for the other suggestions though - we'll investigate...

Mmmm... Digidesign... Nice

Horrible little box though - would be fine for portable recording, and with the legacy of ProTools behind it, I'd bet it performs brilliantly.

However, we're pretty much decided on a rack mount solution for the "studio", and that means a few more inputs are needed.

Thanks for the heads up though.

I can't help...I'm not up on this 'firewire' thing all the kids are using. One of my dream soundcards still uses an ISA bus.