Hi Ho,

I've recently blew what little money I have on a new laptop with a view to taking it on stage with me (please don't lecture me about the dangers of doing that).

My goal is to be able to trigger VSTi's in a live situation using a midi controller keyboard connected to a laptop. In order to do this I understand that I'm going to need to get an external soundcard (to reduce the latency to an acceptable level).

The thing is...

My laptop has a good supply of USB ports and also a Firewire port.

At the time of writing, external Firewire soundcards are MUCH more expensive that external USB soundcards. However, I am VERY skint and my question to the forum is simply this...

Will I be able to do live triggering of VSTi's with an external USB card OR, do I absolutely *NEED* to get a firewire soundcard?

Thanks.