Thanks for all your comments ;) We've used the set up you describe, but as we grow and improve we're always looking for new challenges (it's a hobby after all) and have found our sound effects could do with catching up a bit with the rest of our productions in terms of quality. This is what I'm interested to learn about - if I add some small speakers on leads, how do I get the sound effect to play on those and not on the other speakers placed around the stage? Good suggestion. I've started to encourage 'real' sounds - a few doorbells, figured out how to make a phone ring on cue, etc. The actors and directors all feel that the increased realism is really helping them push themselves to be better too. Yes, I'm conscious of this. Think our previous tech peeps might have been guilty of this as the directors all seem hesitant about using background/ambient sounds as they're too loud and drown out the actors (we don't use mics). But I've recently convinced a director to let my try some background/ambient sounds (a kettle coming to the boil in the distance, rain on a window, onboard a train, etc.) and they sounded really convincing with good placing and careful levels. Thanks, I thought this is what I needed (a way to match sounds to channels, a way to output all those channels to an amp/s, a way to amplify each channel, a speaker/s for each channel) but didn't know what any of the bits were called! So using an interface I'd need an amp for each channel? The PA we use now has an 2 amps, 1 left 1 right, so are there products which similarly have many amps for each channel all in one unit? (a bit like a surround sound system you get for DVD player??) And thanks for the suggestions, I've looked up the Scarlett range, and will continue to have a look about at similar products. I'd heard about a few of those software packages, so I'll check those out too. That's awesome. I've done a similar thing (but much more basic) with a train coming in to a platform (from stage left to right) just using stereo speakers, which went down quite well. Thanks again everyone who commented. I've got plenty of homework to get started on. Any other recommendations, particularly good cheap hardware, would be much appreciated ;) G