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Easy all,

I've been saving for time now and am looking to improve my setup with a better sound card and some nice monitors.

First of all is an external sound card a good idea? I have a basic laptop and I've bin told the one decent component I need from a production point of view is the sound card.... can only find one really, which is the creative sound blaster live. Any good?

Secondly, which monitors stand out around the £400 mark? There are a lot around but no reviews to go by.

Would be greatful for any help.

Cheers.

first off, if you have a firewire port, you can't go wrong with an Edirol FA-101. 10 ins/outs with optical digital in blah blah. they have some nice USB ones over at Edirol (parent company is Roland) which do a great job with sound.

Monitors without Bass Enhancement (because you want to mix the bass yourself with out any coloring of sound) like Event 20/20 are a great investment. I purchased a couple for under 400 USD, so that would be in your price range. Event speakers offer a flat sound....or uncolored if you will, that way your mixing is only as good as your ability to mix.....hehe.

A good mixer might help...but not entirely necessary. If you get self powered monitors and you're not doing a whole lot of recording live audio (adding hardware, vocal, blah blah), all you need is the sound care/interface.

some resources

http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... rentId=114
http://www.event1.com/

Hope that helps. I would get a mixer anyway.....a 12 to 16 channel mixer does most small home/bedroom studios just fine. Anything by Mackie or Yamaha and in a decent price range.