Info please...control surface and mixer for fcp and audio recording

Question

i'm looking for a control surface for final cut pro and also xlr/line inputs for recording guitar and vocals in cubase or audacity.
read all the info here after numerous searches. still some questions.
was looking at the tascam 1082 but not sure of the build quality...i saw one and it looked a bit cheaply built. the two demos at guitar center were falling apart. didn't look nearly as well built as the mackie. also i have been reading here and elsewhere about bugs/problems etc.
was looking at the m-audio...not sure about that one...$1250...
was also looking at mackie control surface...but no firewire...how do you hook it up to a mac? also no audio inputs. what would i need to buy to work in conjunction with that for recording audio? if i bought the mackie, i'd still have to buy an audio inpur device and that would end up costing as much as the m audio.
i know i could just buy a mixer for recording and forget the control surface...i already have a shuttle pro which works fine and i have gotten used to using the mixer in fcp...no problems. but the motorized faders on a control surface sure would be nice
so questions:
how does the mackie connect to a mac and what other device(s) would i need to record audio and how would they hook up...would they play nice together?
ppl who own the tascam...happy with it? used the mic and line preamps? are they noisy?
do i need an additional firewire bus reguardless of which control surface i get?
how does one route the audio for these when in fcp? i currently route my audio through my dsr 11 deck. will the control surface just go through firewire or would i have to actually jack into the control surface with additional cables and have to remove my present cables from my speakers everytime i want to use the control surface?
sorry so many questions. it's really tough to make an informed decision in buying something if you don't understand the mechanics of it.
btw, appreciate the info so far that i found doing my searches.
thanks
carl

Answer 1

I've got the Tascam FW1082 and I absolutely love it. I can't believe I ever edited without it. I'm considering upgrading to the 1884 in the future.
As for the mic preamps, they sound great. Nice and clean. There's no such thing as a line preamp, but the line inputs are clean as well.
For routing, I go to the 1082 via firewire until I turn on my external video monitor, at which point I send both video & audio to the deck and route the audio from the deck into a pair of the mixer's analog inputs. That way you avoid the delay of external monitoring. The 1082 allows you to listen to both the computer & the inputs at the same time, so switching back and forth is seamless.
As for durability, I've had it out on a few location recordings, but most of the time it's on my desk. It's still in mint condition. I'm sure if it was on a display where any 10 year old could come mess with it, it wouldn't be in as great of shape, but then again, a Neve console wouldn't look that great if every little brat that walked in the door could play with it. If you take care of your stuff, you'll have no issues with this mixer.