Any External Audio Interface recommendations for recording?

[flamenco]

Hi,
I have an R61i with XP, and I'm planning to do some musical instrument recording. Previously I had done my recordings on a desktop with a PCI soundcard, and it's dead. I read up on this a bit, and contrary to what I had thought, laptop recording is apparently very feasible nowadays.

There are apparently small soundcards that can work for this. But using an external interface via USB sounds a lot better to me. I've also heard that much recording software works fine with XP, but does not work with Vista, at least the 64bit version, so I'm in a good position there. I think this unit also has USB2, which is a plus.

I'm wondering if any of you out there use your laptops for recording music (or other audio), and could offer any advice from the trenches?

Thanks!

[Paul Pennington]

Before you spend money on another sound card, you might try what you have. Download a free program called "Audacity" and try it with your built-in sound card. You can connect your source to the audio-in jack on the ThinkPad, but I find it more convenient to use a dock and use the line in and out jacks on the back of it. They are labeled "Aux" in the software controls. I'm happy with the results on my A31.