Buying a sound mixer.

Grandaddy Delicious

I'm trying to help my friends get a podcast started. We are looking for a firewire or USB mixer that will allow the recording of four different tracks at one time, which, oddly enough, has been really hard to find. Apparently a lot of mixers that say they are four channel or eight channel or what-have-you only record one or two tracks at a time. That is ridiculous. How are you supposed to figure that out?

I just need a mixer that will allow me to record four tracks from four mics at one time. Any suggestions?

Edit: Looking to spend less than 250 bucks. 199 is the sweet spot.

garroad_ran

You're recording onto a computer, right?

You're not looking for a mixer, you're looking for a soundcard.

With a stock soundcard, the best a mixer will do for you is downmix all your different mics into a stereo (2 channel) track, which you'd record using the Line in on your soundcard.

You need something along the lines of this:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/FastTrackUltra-main.html
M-Audio gear is expensive but high quality.

I highly recommend the Presonus Firestudio. I've been using its predecessor (the Firepod) for four years now, and it is a great soundcard. The preamps are good, and the FireStudio has a few added bells and whistles which are very nice. Also: It comes with recording software.
http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=5

Also, I'm not sure how it would affect you seeing as you're only looking for four tracks, but Firewire interfaces, being faster, are better.

Obviously the stuff I put up there is out of your price range, but dig around a bit and hopefully you'll find something that suits you. Unfortunately, if I were you, I'd definitely be looking to spend closer to $4-500 for a good product.