Depends how much you mean by a budget really…And wether you want USB or PCMCIA…

USB would mean you could use it with a desktop too, andyou can pick up a fairyl basic soundblaster USB for around £30, which will make a noise and sound far better than onboard laptop sound. Not much else from the point of view of fx, MIDI etc though. USB devices go all the way up to silly prices (although for very good quality hardware), but you should maybe take a look at the Edirol UA25 – good quality ins and outs – balanced line, and +4dBu pro level outputs. 48v phantom power for condenser mics. Good MIDI etc for about £150.

PCMCIA is probably a better choice though, as it integrates more closely with the rest of the machine (means the software has more control over the DSP, and internal I/O – a good idea if you want to use mainly software sound generation). Again, you can pick up a fairly cheap S/B – bit more expensive though at around £70, but does a fair bit more than the USB version (ASIO, 24bit 96KHz recording, DSP programmable effects etc).

My personal recommendation (if you have the cash) is the emu 1616. Basically a laptop version of their PCI cards which are superb (I have an 0404 in my desktop, and have never regretted getting it…:bigsmile:) The 1616 costs about £275, but does everything you could possibly want, and probably several things you’ll never need:horay::horay::horay:)

Other decent makes are M-Audio, Echo, and Event are about to release a laptop version of the Layla (although if you’re on a budget this one is probably out…:cry::cry: – very sexy beast though…:bounce_m::bounce_m::bounce_m:)

Basically your best bet is to work out exactly what you will want it to do (now, and down the line), and then get the best quality beast you can afford that satisfies the criteria…

Best place to look is probably either ebuyer, or http://www.turnkey.co.uk (turnkey will be able to give you expert advice though, where ebuyer won’t…)

Hope this helps….:crazy_fre:crazy_fre:crazy_fre…Post if you have any other questions etc (done a fair amount of research on this subject, so should be able to answer most hopefully….:idea::idea:)