now my rat studio is in its preliminary stages, its got a Midi-uno interface
and a mobile preamp,
both have done me alot of justice,
But i feel its time to move on.

I can only run 1 instrument at a time which is kinda hard, i have to constantly switch plugs from each instrument i have.

i wanna know whats the best interface you can get these days?
ppreferably with both midi and audio, and a low distortion (white noise)
for recording.
USB oor Firewire, does not matter

Budget right now is 500

anytakers?

You mean you don't have a mixer attached to the audio input? In case you for some reason don't, I'd highly recommend that first. Makes life a lot easier,

I really don't know what's the best option these days for interfaces, but the M-Audio line of products have been of high quality for anybody on budget (and run on any system flawlessly). I really don't know what's the best option for 500$ though at the moment. Midi routing is a different matter altogether, to be honest I still use the joystick port on my motherboard for that at home. Works without any complaints - I have no idea what's the use for those external 1x1 midi interfaces, other than ripping off people?

As far as preamps go, well I doubt any interfaces even today have that great preamps as far as sclupting the sound goes, so you're still bound to gravitate towards a hardware unit for professional level preamplification if that's what you are after (a good mixer [read Mackie] would do as well). In most cases though, like with the M-Audio soundcards the sound quality is enough good for most instruments to just plug in straight, but then you'd have to use direct monitoring. Not a problem, but not the most "professional" way of doing things. But then again, I was suggesting using the joystick port in the first place, so...

500$ isn't too much, but it will definitely get you an audio interface. I'm not sure how much improvement a basic card will impart on the quality of your recordings though. Hardly much at all, most likely.