To decide on a decent soundcard what I would do is:

check out some types of external soundcards and check the soundonsound http://www.sospubs.co.uk reviews on them...

Focusrite or a M-Audio soundcard?

After that I would check out monitors and measure the room for standing waves etc

What soundcard do you have? I would get a good soundcard (one with 24 bits 96 khz recording/playback capability) if you don't allready have one.

get a nordlead AND a machine drum...

game over

MarcAshken wrote:forget those, get a machinedrum www.machinedrum.com ,
mine arrived 2 days ago an its amazing, I 100% promise you that you wont regret it.

this is true.. the longer I create beats with this thing the more I love it.