Just verifying that all of these setups are possible (which, do you think would yield best reults?):
1. Any Mic -> E-MU Tracker Pre (bus-powered) -> Laptop USB port
2. Any Mic -> E-MU Tracker Pre (external power) -> H2 line input
3. Any Mic -> E-MU Tracker Pre (external power) -> Edirol R-09HR line input
4. Condenser Mic (with adapter) -> MT2's phantom powered 1/4" inputs
With #1 the Tracker Pre will be acting as both a preamp and an A/D converter, the laptop is just a bit bucket and doesn't affect sound quality much if at all.
With #2 & #3 the tracker Pre will just be acting as just a preamp and the recorders will be doing the A/D conversion. The line in on the units ~could~ affect sound quality.
With #4 the MT2 will be the preamp and will be doing the A/D conversion.
As far as which will give you the best results, that's hard to say. First you have to assume the same mics for all the set ups. I've never used a MT2 so I can't say anything about its sound quality. I have heard some good recordings made with one though. I've only played with an R-09 and can't really comment there either but I've heard many recordings and it seems to be fine. I've made many recordings using the H2 line in but with a CA-9000 preamp and they have been pretty good!
While sound quality is obviously high on our priorities when evaluating a unit, so is a number of other factors like size & weight (H2 beats the R-09 here), power (consumption and how to power it in the field), construction quality (R-09 beats the H2 here), what media it uses (I like SDHC cards), price, features, ease of use, stability (MT 2 looses here from what I've seen), etc. What format and sound quality ranges are you wanting? Want to record to MP3 sometimes or always record as wav files? Do you want to stick to CD quality (44.1KHz/16 bit) or do you want to go higher? How high? I recommend recording at 24 bit wav. You can always down-sample it in post processing to whatever you want. And don't get to hung up on price (easy for me to say!). Think about the long run. That $100 difference between an H2 and a R-09HR is piddly when factored over a couple of years.
I haven't heard ANY recordings with the Tracker Pre in the chain. Its a relatively new unit. I may get one as an all around backup unit since it is so versatile and cheap. It would backup both my CA-9000 and my UA-5 and would allow me to hook up my C4 mics to my H2 if I wanted or allow me to hook up my CA-11 mics to my laptop. Currently I have a M-Audio MobilePre as the backup to my UA-5. Its just ok, nothing great. It WILL NOT work as a stand alone preamp, it must be hooked to a computer.
The UA-5 is a much respected computer interface that can be run off external batteries. But it really wants to be connected to a computer. There is what they call a "digi-mod" where the unit is altered to run without a computer but its output is digital and wont run into the line-in on any of the recorders we have been discussing (except maybe the R-44). You'll see where a lot of people use a modified UA-5 to record into a modified MP3 player like the JB3 or the H120. That works well but as a newbie you may not want to go this route as it involves several modifications, a couple of power packs, a digital cable, etc. It gets a bit complicated.
Post-processing: That's where we edit the recordings using DAW software on a computer. I use Audacity. It works and its free. But there are certainly many other options that cost from free to whatever you are willing to spend. Some work better for some things than the others. Audacity may work for you or you may find that you need ProTools. You may have recorded directly to the computer or you may have to copy the files from a recorder. For post-processing it really makes no difference. Editing involves removing any unwanted parts, applying any Normalization, amplification, EQ or compression (etc.) and tracking the files (cutting the long recording up into songs). You can get fancy and add fade ins, faded outs, cross-fades and lost of other effects. I go as simple as possible and rarely alter the original sound with EQ or compression. The last step is saving the songs in whatever format you choose. If you want to burn them to CD they will have to be 44.1kHz/16bit. But if your computer is tied into your stereo you might leave them at the highest quality and play them back that way. Or you might save them as MP3, wma files, etc. for portable players. Or you may want to save them in all of the file versions. No reason you can't. There is a learning curve for ANY DAW software and what works for one person may not be the solution for the next. Its what works for YOU. Always save your raw recordings unmodified because you may want to revisit them later when you know how to process them better.