Recording on a laptop - USB Mics or new Soundcard

[Paul]

Hi Folks,

Just a quick question here.

I normally record most of my stuff on a desktop computer with a decent-ish soundacrd and mixer/mics, etc. On occasion though I would find it really useful to be able to record elsewhere on our cheapo laptop, for instance to record the piano downstairs or try weird vocal stuff in a bathroom.

I've tried connecting the mixer to the laptop and the results are pretty awful, presumably beacause of the rubbish soundcard that they come with.

So my question is... am I better invesing in a laptop soundcard that is better than the internal one (the priciest option) or will buying a £50 USB Condenser mic work better (the cheaper option) and record straight to the disk/bypass the soundcard, thus saving moving the mixer, etc and allowing me to record on the go.

Or is there a better solution i'm missing? I'm really looking for quick and easy (with pretty good results) as I will only be recording like this sparodically.

Any pointers?

Cheers



Paul