I am on the verge of purchasing a Mac Book Pro and I wanted to know what sound card I should get.  I only write battery stuff so full orchestra play back isn't required. 

Thanks... Sorry if this has been covered.

What are your options?  I could tell you to go get a $1000 RME half-rack, but I don't think it's what you're after...

If you want an external FW or USB, Roland makes great cards.  So does M-Audio...  mostly.

If you're looking internal, is there an option on your purchase?  If you have an option, it's very likely that you don't want the cheaper one...  ;)

More info, man.  Budget?  Expectations?

I don't know much about this side, but if you're just looking for VDL to work without hickup and with good sound... the macbook's standard soundcard works great. You can actually get your latenty settings pretty low without atifacts and such. And unless you are using vdl for live perfomance, I wouldn't really see the need to get it any lower than about 10. If you are new to Mac, they aren't like PC's in many ways, and the way they work with audio is vastly different. Core Audio has done some amazing things for mac.

More info will get you better results on the boards here. Peace...

Ditto that. You should be just fine with the built-in audio that comes on the Mac Book Pro. You can always upgrade later if you need to, but in general built-in Mac audio should work quite well for what you're describing.

Thanks for the information. I think i'll just stick with the on board card it comes with and get 3 gigs of ram.  After reading through many of the topics it looks like 3 gigs is the way to go.. 

You may even want to hold off on buying the extra RAM just yet. I think the MacBook Pro comes with 2GB included. If you're only writing battery stuff, this will be enough. If you later decide you need a little more go-go in you giddyup, you can buy RAM upgrades at a lower prices than if you bought straight from Apple.

Thanks for the advice...