i need a change

[sonnycheebs]

ok i have a motu 24i and a 2408 that i am working with on cubase sx on win xp. both are mark i's with the 324 card. i mostly make tracks thru my mpc2000. i do some recording of vocals nothing too big. i have a pretty good room and good mics and a few good pres (grace, tampa, trident). while i have worked cubase for years it gets on my nerves sometimes. it sometimes does not like the inputs from the motu where it wont let me record multi channels or if i have been working on audio for a while the midi goes out. with that said i am looking to go in a different direction. i want to start with me sound card. i would like something with aleast 8 inputs to record my mpc to my program and built in midi. i read alot of what people are talking about on the board here and it is kind of hard to apply what i read to what i need. would a stand alone mixer like the tascam 1884 or the digi 002 work well here. is there something else i should be looking at? i hear alot about the fireface. i am looking to spend in a smart way. i would like to go to something else if i can tell the differece for the money. all ideas are welcome thans in advance.