Thanks a million, John! Good information there and lots to think about. And as you say, lots of questions!

I do have an option or two. Right now, my laptop is my computer of choice primarily because my desktop is in need of some extensive upgrading. The laptop has USB-2 ports, the desktop's are USB-1. Right now, I use the desktop mostly for storage—and the attached printer. I don't really intend to pack the recording equipment around; I want to set up a home studio, within a necessarily tight budget, and judging from the reviews I've read of the Omega, it appears that it does more than some of the recorders I've been looking at and is a bit less expensive.

I was looking at some of the portable flash card recorders, like the Marantz PMD660 or the Zoom H-4, which would be convenient for "field recording" (indeed, that's what they're for), but for my purposes, I thought they might be kind of "iffy." My serious recording would be done at home.

Possible course of action:   get the Omega, try it with the laptop or the laptop-external hard drive combination, and if it doesn't work or gives less than satisfactory results, go ahead and either get my desktop upgraded or bite the bullet and get a new desktop, making sure it has the specs I'll need. I've been planning to upgrade or replace it anyway, but using the laptop has allowed me to procrastinate. . . .

Just thinkin' out loud. Anyway, thanks for the info, John.

Don Firth