Budget sound card

[Scriber]

I will be doing some home recording and plugging my small mixer into the computer. I need a decent sound card for the job but my limit is £20. Any suggestions?

[RecT]

I assume you mean an internal desktop one?

Dabs.com have the Creative SoundBlaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM listed at £18. I have this one and can't recommend it enough!

[toshwriter]

Depending on how serious you are, you should probably be considering investing slightly more. The fact that you've invested in a mixer, however small, suggests that something of a higher price range would be more appropriate.

Internal sound cards (perhaps unfairly) are generally considered inferior to USB and firewire alternatives, but regardless of which option you choose you'll get a significant improvement in latency and fidelity by spending a little more.

I personally don't use an external mixer; my audio interface has a setting which can directly accept a guitar input, as well as an XLR input for mics. You might be able to get something a bit simpler than this since you won't require pre-amps, gain controls etc.

Assuming you're planning on multitracking, you might want to get an audio interface with more than one set of inputs, rather than having to record each instrument separately. Of course this depends on the capabilities of your mixer. One trick you could try if you've got, say, two guitars to record simultaneously is link one to each channel, then split them up in software. That way you only need a single input.