[LAU] need help in san francisco

[jim]

    any body willing to help me out in san francisco? 
the project is to set up a recording and sequencing 
system for scratch (semi-pro-quality) recording. 
    i'm an out of work musician but none-the-less 
willing to pay money. 

problems include: 
* determine the right computer to buy 
    for example: buy a tower or a laptop or both? if a 
    tower, what expansion cards to buy? 
* determine what software to use 
* determine i/o and other hardware 
* how to drive a roland X10, other roland digital 
  keyboard? 
    what other external hardware to buy? drum machine? 
    other music instrument hardware? (i like having 
    instrument voices in external hardware so's not to 
    burden the CPU of the computer running recording or 
    sequencing software.) 
* use existing pro-tools recordings on the new linux 
  system 

hopefully, 
jim 
PS: music store people i've talked to have no clue about 
linux stuff. 
i have read reviews and other online info and cannot find 
what i need: specifics to put a small, basic system 
together (what CPU speed, RAM, storage... to buy; is there 
reasonably good quality recording or sound generation or 
audio playback stuff in expansion card form that works 
with linux; are there necessary drivers or libraries that 
are not obvious to someone new to setting up these systems; 
what are the solutions to problems that typically come 
with the specific hardware and software components...?).