Hi Jim (the Pro): I'm primarily interested in a hardware DAW for the portability & convenience of recording 'outside' the studio. I had also considered going the laptop route, but assumed that a hardware DAW recorder would be more convenient to operate because it actually includes dedicated physical 'recording' transport buttons, while a laptop requires fiddling (mousing) around with a pointer device. I also thought that hardware based DAWs provide better stability & reliablility than laptop software programs can. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Curious how much I would need to spend on a laptop (speed, RAM, HD size) to support audio recording. Any suggestions?

Btw: Looks like the cool Novation keyboard piece you're getting for Xmas should easily slide down the chimney.

Scott