Hi Glen,
It depends on what you want to do.
If you want to record live on multiple tracks > 2 at the same time you will need to buy an interface that can support that and these are not going to work with your budget as they cost somewhere between $600 - $2000+.
If you are only recording live with a maximum of 2 tracks then you already have what you need in hardware as your R8 has a 2 channel USB PC interface built in which a software DAW will be able to see and use. You can record on 2 tracks at a time, then rewind and record the next 2 tracks...etc.
As for software, I use a fantastic product by Presonus called Studo One, this is not cheap for the pro version, however there is a free version on their website called Studio One Prime:
https://shop.presonus.com/Studio-One-5-Prime
I have not used this but as I use the paid for version and love it, I would think this would be very good.
I have found in 35 years of recording that in most cases you have to pay a reasonable amount for quality software and hardware full stop, I've tried all the shortcuts but they fail you in some ways or another.
There is also free 'Audacity' software that lets you record 2 tracks at a time but then you can rewind and record the next 2 tracks...repeat. This is also good for tapping into live music feeds/streams and recording to hard disk on the fly.
Again, if you only record 2 tracks at the same time, (which is all the R8 can do anyhow when connected to the PC), and get some free software, mentioned, then you won't need to spend anything!
However if you want to record more than 2 tracks at the same time then be prepared to fork out the dollars. Just like telescopes I guess.
More than happy to chat in more detail as it's not a simple topic depending on what you want to do.
Cheers,
Damien.
