Hi gang,

Need to duplicate the functionality of my at-home DP rig in a mobile setup. This is gonna be used as a MIDI composing/songwriting station with the ability to record studio-quality (hopefully) "keeper" vocal/band tracks while on the road. Leaning towards an 828 w/ Rosetta
or AD-8000 front end, MIDI Express, and either iBook or TiBook. Would love to hear from anyone who's using a similar combo. Pros and cons? Successes/horror stories?

Some specific q's:

1. The 828 box... how well does the FireWire thing really work? Is it solid/stable? Any bandwidth issues to be aware of? Can I abuse this
setup just like my PCI-324/2408 combo at the house?

2. Can I use a FW external as my main record drive? If this is a no-no, how can I add an IDE recording drive to the i/Ti? Do I need to go with the Magma or something?

3. I notice the 828 has no dedicated word clock input. If using it with the Rosetta, I'd assume the 828 would read WC from the SPDIF input just fine, however. True?

4. I get rock-solid USB MIDI timing with my 'big' rig at the house, but lately have been reading about USB-related timing anomalies with other people's systems. What can I expect from the iBook/TiBook running with the MIDI Express USB?

5. Any practical performance differences related to running DP on the iBook vs TiBook? I've heard that the iBook actually has better FireWire performance than the Ti, but I couldn't find anything on Apple's website corroborating this. Wazzup? Any other DP-related diff's between i and Ti?

As always... many, many thanks in advance!

-e