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I went to two stores today looking to buy an onboard pro sound card for my Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista Pro. They're Indonesian and of course don't have much experience with recording setups.

They said its not even possible to take out the existing sound card and put in a new one and that I'd have to use a usb sound card. Is that true?

Next question is how can I find out if the sound card that came with the computer meets Cubase 5's requirement to have an ASIO Driver or Direct X compatible driver? I understand that the USB cards have latency issues so I don't want to have an outboard sound card at all if possible. I don't see anything that says either ASIO or Direct X. HOw can I check?

I was able to see that my computer has a higher rate than 44.1 and that there's a little box to check to change it to the 44.1 rate. It seems to allow both the higher level and the 44.1 choices to exist simultaneously but I'm not 100 percent sure about that. So, can I just check that and not have to buy a different onboard sound card? That would be sweet and

would leave only getting a musical instrument digital interface. Again, what kind do you recommend?

Hi Chime,

The race other than the race you are, are right about the sound card. An integrated sound card is not a card at all; it is just a circuit and processor soldered on the motherboard. I would Check Cubase's website and forums to find any compatibility issues with different sound cards. If you are using windows you can right click Computer, click manage, select Device manager on the left hand side, click sound devices, and it should list exactly what you have.

Latency with usb digital converters (usb sound card etc) If you invest a couple hundred bucks into a usb "soundcard" you should have less latency issues. Also typically laptop power supplies create a lot of RF interference internally, affecting the audio you record with an on board sound card.
http://www.steinbergusers.com/cubase/cu ... at_req.php = Cubase

Yep, your soundcard will have to be outboard, since it's a laptop. You can use the internal card for non-critical stuff, but the 1/8th in mini-jack inputs and outputs are notoriously unreliable; they figure most consumerts buy a new laptop every couple years, so they don't need to stand up to the sort of hard use a musician is likely to give them. That leaves three interface choices: CardBus, FireWire and USB. Your choice depends on the number of ins and outs needed for the kinds of music you'll record. A decent minimum is two ins, two outs (for a monitor system) and a headphone output with a hardware volume knob. If you think you might want to occasionally record one stereo instrument and two mono instruments on separate tracks, that'd take four inputs. Two stereo instruments and two mono requires six inputs, etc. Much more than 8 ins, 4 outs, you should probably look into FireWire, rather than USB, but there are some newer USB devices that can handle the throughput, like Zoom's R16: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/R16/ Which can also record in standalone mode without the laptop; just connect it for visual mixing with your DAW, and you also have a handy DAW controller.

A cool recent trend is having the interface built into an instrument: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PODStuKB37/

There are a ton of options, so here's a decent collection of info on how to choose an interface: http://www.sweetwater.com/shop/computer ... _guide.php

As far as sound quality/value goes, I like Emu's stuff, but just about everything that isn't "bare minimum" will get you a decent sound; convenience and durability tend to cost a little extra.