This ought to be easy to figure out if I just had 5 minutes with the manual -- or, even better, with the actual equipment -- but since I have neither handy at the moment & I'm feeling kind of impatient I figured I'd just ask.

I have a Tascam US-1641 audio interface that I use with my laptop for multitrack recording on location. I'll then usually bring those tracks back to the studio, & dump them onto the big tower computer that has its own audio interface (i.e., not the same Tascam US-1641) before proceeding with the project

...which means that throughout the entire overdubbing & mixing process that laptop and audio interface are going unused.

It occurred to me though that since the Tascam US-1641 has MIDI i/o perhaps I could run Virtual Instruments on the laptop, feed the US-1641 MIDI data from the main DAW (via the MIDI interface hanging off the big tower computer) and use that laptop/US-1641 combination as an overblown/overpowered MIDI sound module, just like my Kurzweil or E-mu Proteus etc. modules.

Make sense? iow, ignore the fact that that laptop & interface are capable of so much more, just use it to take MIDI data in and spew audio out from a freestanding Virtual Instrument.

Has anyone used a US-1641 for this purpose? Thanks.