As you'll be bouncing down on the computer 4 outs on a soundcard would be wasted.
2 in's would be fine (as the desk would do the work) or use digital in's and use the O3D's digital out

Would digital in still give me each part as a seperate track, or just the one, as I am really not expecting to get everything done whilst I have the desk at my disposal?

Good question, I haven't used an O3D for ages.

This would make a cheap easy audio interface for you

That's certainly cheap, and two channels will probably be enough.

My only concern is that I was hoping to get a proper soundcard for audio playback as I'm currently using onboard sound, and was sort of thinking of killing two birds with one stone...

Its got 2 outputs as well.

Sorry, my reservation was more that at £30 I was concerned about what sort of quality the DAC inside it will be, rather than straight functionality. I am currently using onboard sound for music / gaming but was wanting something that would expressly give a better quality output for that. I have been looking at the following as it has Phono outputs as well as the breakout box:

http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~nam ... ID~108.asp

As a side note, they have disabled right click on that website which makes it really, really annoying to use.

Nice card.

I assumed from the garageband mention you'd be using a mac.
Based on the cost per channel, they'll probably be using similar DAC's anyway (probably the wolfson ones).

Ah right, I can see the confusion. I was planning on doing the recording itself straight onto the PC, and then moving the tracks over to the Mac at a later date. However, a breakout box would have the advantage of working with both. Hmm, more pondering required.

This would work with both

Curses, the hire company have had their O3D stolen. Looks like a Midas Venice is the next best option.

Nice desk, I used to use an XL

Ooh, I had a look at the XL8 on the website and it certainly looks like a seriously impressive bit of kit. I shudder to think how much they are.

Think fairly nice BMW prices

$256,000 for the XL8. Having said that, it has pretty much all the effects units you'd ever need built in.

Just remember the 4 guys needed to carry it & the stand