Layla 24/Sonar

[Rob801]

I'm considering purchasing a Layla 24 laptop but have a couple of questions I hope someone can help me with.

I am a drummer with basically no recording experience(but am eager to learn)I want to use it primarily to record acoustic drum tracks using Sonar 2.0. (I realize it might seem like jumping off the deep end for someone with no recording experience but there are two reasons for this. The first is that my former keyboard player uses Sonar and we want to start Recording songs long distance. He's in LA, I'm in Denmark! As far as Layla goes, I have a large kit and would like eight inputs so I can mic my drums individually.)

Now finally to my first question. Can I do this with nothing other than my Layla 24, PC, and microphones or do the microphones need to run through a pre amp of some kind? I've tried recording my drums with Sonar with just a single room mic connected to my SB live card and it seemed to pick up the drums just fine.

My second question has to do more with playing live because I also Play in a copy band and was wondering if it was possible to use Layla as a mixer for live playing(for example running my drums into the eight inputs and then,mixing down to two outputs through my laptop which I could then run into the bands mixer). At the moment I play without mics on my drums. The other thing I'm unsure of is if I can use Sonar to mix live ( as opposed to just recording). If I can't use sonar is there another program for live mixing?

Sorry this is so long winded but these questions have been stuck in my head and I as of yet haven't been able to find the info myself on-line.

One last thing, so far I only have Sonar and my desktop PC, but in the near future plan to purchase a laptop (most likely a Dell with a 2-2.5 GHz processor and 256mb minimum memory)
Microphones will be Shure PGMK6 or something compatible.

Any info on this subject will be a great help!

Thanks

[melloman]

Here's the story on Layla24:
You will need some preamping on the layla. It's basically designed to handle inputs (direct outs) on a mixer, and to have those fed back through a mixer. Some sound card setups do allow for plugging mikes directly into them, but won't attach to a laptop. A few do have preamps (the Mona does) and allow for connection via PC card. Not many though.
I haven't used any, but I understand some manufacturers make firewire interfaces that handle 8 inputs, and will work with sonar.
I personally use an Aardvark q10 nowadays, and they have 8 XLR inputs, 4 of which can be phantom powered. Unfortunately, not a laptop capable rig, but my new computer is going to go into a rack mount ATX case anyway. A Q10 could play back a monitor mix with no problem.