This is a Midi synth, isn't it? Then your soundcard won't interfere with it too much.
Yes, it's a MIDI controller with a (pretty nice) built-in synth. Currently, I use it as my input device in Duplex mode with JACK (audio through USB), but if I were to get a new card, I suppose I would connect it with a physical cable (SPDIF) instead of using ALSA as a bridge.
So it depends, on how familiar you are with solving Linux-problems and how much time you want to invest. If you want to make music quickly instead of doing system administration then buy a USB card.
I'm pretty familiar with solving linux problems, but I don't want to invest a lot of money only to find out that I need to write/hack a driver myself! That degree of experience is over my head at the moment.
Personally I would consider to buy a real PCI card for the desktop. They aren't expensive: decent cards with the ICE-chipsets (like the Delta cards by M-Audio) start at about 70 Euro for stereo cards, and they will give better performance than USB or FW. Plus you will save a lot of time by not having to change your setup at home all the time.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll definitely weigh my options and decide on something soon. -Lou
