Oh ok? yea i haven't spent much time looking at usb mics, i knw they can be good for podcasts and things like that, but i haven't seen them used as industry standards, but its still early days for many new innovations in technology hey. The traditional use with XLR's provide a balanced line for recording and are trust worthy, but there is always room for new changes. What do you record? vocals, instruments? what types? at the end of the day, if its a clean recording and it sounds good then who gives a F hey lol. The AudioInterface is needed when working on projects with 120-200 tracks with lots of VSTs etc, it takes pressure of the PC, which is why i need it as with most studios, they also have the AD/DA converters in the high level pre-amp and interface gear that really provide nice tone and high quality sampling.
cheers for your feed back, very interesting to hear from everyone and how people achieve things, audio should always be open to experimenting with new techniques ideas and tech.
thanks again.