What USB interface to buy?

Hi there

I'm looking for a usb interface that will allow me to:
- Connect a Fender Stratocaster (electric guitar), an electroacoustic guitar and a Shure sm58 (dynamic microphone) to my pc;
- Make the sound of the guitars come out through the speakers of my pc, and have the possibility of changing the tone of the guitars independently (adding delays, chorus or other effects, with decent quality);
- Record the sound of all three simultaneously in different tracks, with decent quality;
- Apply realtime changes to the sound of the guitars, so that my configuration tones won't only be "hearable" once I've recorded the sound;
- Do the recordings/realtime reproduction with my pc with no latency (or unnoticeable latency).

I'm planning to spend up to 200 € to buy this usb interface. Any suggestions?
Thank you!

Stay away from usb! go firewire!! much better quality.
good luck

Why do you say that. i know people who are quite happy with their usb interfaces. i guess it depends on what you want or need to do with it?

It's true that Firewire is more stable in general for sound cards which have a lot of ins and outs, which is the kind of soundcard you seem to need.

(Technically : the availability of the bus of the USB may vary depending on the use of the bus by other components, but the Firewire one is constant for one component).

USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400 and for what you need USB should be fine. The Alesis IO/2 or the M-audio Fast Track Pro are both great USB interfaces. If you decide you want to take the firewire route then check out the Presonus Firebox, it's sweet. You can get a great deal on any one of these units at www.proaudiostar.com and get great free tech support.

Quote: USB 2.0 is faster than firewire 400

In theory this is right, but practically FW400 is more reliable for a stable high rate transfer than USB 2.0.

Quote: for what you need USB should be fine. The Alesis IO/2 or the M-audio Fast Track Pro are both great USB interfaces.

Unless I'm mistaken both have only 2 inputs, and zanman wants to record three tracks at once so these ones just won't do for him... Actually I'm not even sure if there actually is a USB interface which has more than 2 inst/mic inputs.