Detour - Hardware

So in considering my options I was thinking over the features I have with my current hardware and what I would lose in going for a laptop based solution (phone is still away for repair and I can't save with FL Studio so what else am I going to do with my time).

Anyway I currently have:

• Portable jam backing (drum machine and / or 8-track)
• Recording device (8-track)
• Mixing desk (8-track)

One of my constraints is that as I have a family and no room to dedicate to my hobbies, all my music stuff has to be got out and packed away with each session, so appliance type units are really useful as I can just plug them in and switch them on, but the more things I have to connect together and set up the less useful they become. So, for example I could run my drum machine and 8-track together synced by MIDI, but I think I only ever had the time to get that working once...

So I was thinking that what I really want is an audio interface that can also record to SD so I can take drum beats that I create on my laptop and call them up at the push of a button. Also something portable I can plug into to record guitar parts that I can later save to my laptop would be cool. As it happens both BOSS and ZOOM have thought of these things and come up with some nifty bits of kit that cover my desired workflows. The BOSS BR800 looks decent but doesn't record directly to WAV and costs more. The ZOOM R8 seems perfect, but I've had ZOOM stuff in the past and never been happy with it. I think I need to investigate further...