A Midiman delta 44 or even an Audiophile soundcard if you'll only need two inputs can both be had for less than $300 USD and will give you comparable results vs many of the standalone digital recorders. These use ASIO drivers and support the 24 / 96 standard. The Soundblaster stuff is ok too, and I haven't tried the Audigy, but I get noticably better quality and results ( S/N in particular )with the Audiophile vs the SB Live card I have installed. I kept the SB live however as a second midi interface and because I use soundfonts ( Creative's sampler technolgy ).

I'm in agreement here. The main reason that I use the software approcah is because of the flexbility and capability of adding plug ins to it.

AJ