just bought a inspiron 8500 laptop thinking I had covered all my bases for multimedia creation. Guess what? No line-in on the cheap sound card, and I can't hear any audio when I'm recording. This could be a problem as I like to record one instrument and listen to the playback as I record another. Am I going to have to replace the sound card? How easy is that on a lap top? Other thoughts?
There are PCMCIA sound cards as well as USB soundcards. If you are going to have to replace your soundcard depends on how much the integrated one suits your needs - you'll find out sooner or later. It's quite easy but not as cheap as PCI soundcards for desktop PCs.
I use a CB Extigy external soundcard with my laptop and so far have found it the best in the price range, now below £100 believe. I would suggest going to their website and see if it does what you want. My original reason for purchase was that I use my laptop for Pro sound and was having power supply noise problems from the onboard soundcard, problem now solved.
