forgot to mention - the Firewire 410 also has MIDI and SPDIF. Save you a USB MIDI port if you're sending out to synths/modules/etc.

I've had a Firewire 410 for a while now too, second the recommendation. I also have a MOTU Ultralight. (I have more than one Mac, and use Logic as well as Live.)

If you can get a bluetooth mouse you can avoid the USB problem. Me, I've gotten used to trackpads.

Though you've gone ahead and gotten a MacBook Pro already (I got one last year too), you could've done just fine with a plain MacBook (albeit with the RAM maxed. But I always get the maximum installed now.) What you get with the Pro is just a better video card and larger screen; the audio, CPU and bus specs of the MacBook are just fine. I see a lot of people running Live on them.

I have become ultra skeptical of anything m-audio over the last many years. I owned the usb quattro which didn't sound bad but was full of little quirks (this was on my windows machine, btw). A couple of months ago I made an attempt to hook up my roomates firewire 410 to my macbook pro and ended up with a hardware failure message (the equivelant of the windows blue screen). The hardware itself was fine.
I personally own a Motu ultralite for use with my macbook and am very happy with it. But it's expensive so I would,ny recommend it right off the bat. But one thing to be said is that there are only a small handfull of companys that make really descent drivers for mac. Motu, echo, Presonus (and of course super high end RME, Apogee, Metric Halo, etc.) are definately some of the top companys. M-audio, Tc Electronix, Focusrite, etc. really seem to be hit or miss (from what I've heard and read fo course. Havn't personally tried and tested them all).
I really think that Echo is a solid company. And even though I'm stilled pissed off that they discontinued and stop supporting the Echo Gina-20 Pci card that I've owned since 99 I still will fully recommend them. And the Audiofire series is a steal as far as price, stability, and sound quality.
.......... Quote:
"I've seen PCs crash way too many times in live situations for them to be much better than paper weights"

Thats interesting because I've Only seen Mac laptops crash on stage. And on 3 different occasions.
My janky ass hp from like 5 years ago (despite the lack of power) was solid as fuck for playing out Live with. I use a macbook pro now for playing out which is soild in it's own right but live is still a tad bit squirly on it. Pc's CAN be great machines but alot of care has to be put into maintaining them. Unlike mac which is much more plug, play, and forget about it.
Hell, I even saw Sqarepusher live once and he was using a sony vaio with his bass guitar, pedals, midi controllers, all plugged and running off of max ( well, I'm asuming it was max). Solid. Actually that performance was quite goofy...but still solid:)

For what it is worth, I have actually played out with my G4 Powerbook and only used the computers line out and really, it sounded just fine. When recording and doing some serious sequencing and mixing however, you really want to get an external interface. Also go to the manufacturers website and check compatibility.....I just upgraded to Leopard and (oops!) didn't check compatibility for my Onyx firewire interface: BIG MISTAKE! I am waiting for Mackie or Apple to get together and work it out (should be summer at the latest) and limping along with a 150 dollar Line 6 Gearbox interface as my only input. I also understand that some Presonus and M-audio interfaces are nothing but trouble with Mac's.....Choose wisely, grasshopper!


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Thanks for all the great suggestions, this forum is great! Being a noob is so much easier with all the help. I just got my new laptop today. I'll be switching over my desktop in early April. I'll let you know if I run into any issues vs. my Dell XPS desktop. I'm thinking I'll get the iMac to save the bucks. And I'll likely get that M Audio 410 if it's compatible with Leopard. Love my trigger finger already.

Thanks!
Ian