Looking for small studio help/suggestions

[emohbe]

I have a small studio in my house that I put together about a year ago. Ill list everything that I have in my studio.

M-Audio fast track ultra
axiom 61 keyboard
akai mpd 24
CAD E100S Condenser mic
2 Rokit 5's
Macbook Pro (got it in 2009)

As far as wiring goes- My speakers and mic are connected through my fast track. My MPD and my keyboard are directly connected to my Macbook through USB.

Im looking for advice on optimizing my studio as well as any suggestions for equipment. For example, would buying an external hard drive for my Macbook significantly help the speed of my system because I know I have a lot plugged in to the laptop. I can't afford a new mac at the moment.

[davidnoakes]

I would suggest buying an external hard drive for recording your sessions onto either Firewire or USB 3.0. Or if you wanted to go a bit further, get yourself a solid state drive, stick it in your Mac and use this as your boot drive and then get an external drive for all your sessions, samples etc. You also should definitely have a back-up drive!