My system is pretty immobile. Here are the relevant pieces of gear for this thread:
Dell Tower with M-Audio sound card
Midisport 2x2 midi box
Roland Rack Mount synth
Behringer basic-model mixer
Mic on mic stand
Yamaha full-size piano
Receiver
Big-ass Sennheiser headphones
Cables and plugs and mice and things
 
I may need to be living in Australia for a few months for work, and am figuring this is a great chance to finish my album finally. But I don't think I'm going to be planted in a hotel for months. I think I will be moved around to different locations a week at a time within the country. So I'm looking for ways to get more mobile with my studio setup. I'm not doing any guitars or anything, the mic is only used for vocals.
 
I have a fairly beefy laptop I can run Sonar on and could bring an external HD for Sonar projects. But it doesn't have the M-Audio sound card, and of course no slots for it. So how would that work? 
 
The Roland synth is old (late 90's I think), but I rely on it a lot still, so I can't leave that at home. I know that the memory it requires is nothing compared to what is available on my PC, and I wish I could wave a wand and turn the whole thing into a soft synth and not have to lug the box along. Also, if I bring that, I'm also bringing the external Midi interface.
 
And what about the keyboard? I can buy/borrow a tiny midi controller, but I've done that before and the octave switching drove me crazy, and whenever I needed to input actual piano parts, well, it was not fun...
 
And how can I record mic input without the mixer? 
 
In all, how do I go about paring down this setup so that I can take it down under?

Laptop and USB interface with Sonar. Leave the synth at home and use Z3ta+ to generate place holder lines. The mic will plug into the interface. The keyboard is the tough one. Not flight friendly. Other than that, everything should fit in your carry-on bag.

 

ampfixer
Laptop and USB interface with Sonar. Leave the synth at home and use Z3ta+ to generate place holder lines. The mic will plug into the interface. The keyboard is the tough one. Not flight friendly. Other than that, everything should fit in your carry-on bag.

Could you elaborate a bit on the Z3ta+ solution? What do you mean by "place holder lines"? And what interface will the mic plug into, exactly? And the USB interface, is this a new sound card I'd need to buy?

What I meant was to use Z3ta as your synth and use it to create synth lines that will later be replaced when you get back to your usual gear. A USB interface like a Roland Quad capture sits on the desktop beside your computer. You can use a mic, guitar or other device to input your music. They usually have phantom power, XLR or 1/4" inputs and outputs plus a headphone jack. Very well suited to hotel living.

All right, then, thanks! Maybe if I like the Z3ta sounds enough I can just keep them. I've never played with it, or really any of the synths that bundle with Sonar, makes me think learning something about them would be a good pre-Australia task as well.

You may not like this recommendation, but wanted to throw it out anyway.
 
Ooof, being ex-Navy traveling extensively (in a happy fashion) means traveling light. Please think realistically on how much you intend to babysit gear, especially if jumping around a "week at a time." Packaging/unpackaging gear is going to eat time, and if working the actual "free time" may not be as much (or productive) as you think. A laptop and light interface (not even needed if working MIDI) I can see as doable, since you can carry them on your person, but getting carried away is something to consider heavily.
 
As an aside... have you been to Australia before? If not, I would propose taking advantage of the opportunity to see/do things there (even meet some of the Aussie users we have here!). Unless Australia is "old hat" for you, I would recommend traveling light and touring as much as possible on your trip. In 5 years you can then talk about cool Aussie stories (and memories) rather than "I actually didn't see much, I looked at SONAR on my time off." Please consider the "5 years from now" aspect, as opportunities to "see the world" are not "old hat" to many.
 
I personally have not yet been to Australia, and in your shoes I would post a thread "Going to Australia soon, anyone want to meet up while there?" SONAR (and especially your gear in a safe spot) can wait. A laptop would suffice for traveling for me.

I'm with you, +1

I see "Seattle" in your handle, so I assume you're from WA. I don't know how much international travel you've had, so if this is known, my apologies.
 
Whatever you take, make sure it can handle 220VAC/50Hz. And make sure you have enough electrical plug converters. Or do what I did. Carry a US outlet strip (NO on-board electronics), plug all of your US stuff into that, and then you can get by with a single plug converter.
 
Also, if the length of your stay warrants it, you may want to look for a music shop in Sydney (assuming that's your arrival city) and rent a MIDI keyboard for the duration.
 
Rule #1, and #2, and #3, when travelling internationally is: be able to carry ALL of your luggage at the same time (travel light). I did it a lot, so I had luggage for 747s and different luggage for 777s. If you've ever taken the RER B train from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport into the city center and had to negotiate tall, narrow, crowded stairs to get from the B train to the Metro, you'll know why.
 
The less you take, the happier you'll be in the long run.

Thanks for all the advice. I've thought about the "see Australia" angle, and as I will be there months, I will have plenty of opportunity to do that. Never been there. I just got back from a few weeks in Saigon, no less, easily the most unlike-home place I've ever been, but working full-time there wasn't a lot of opportunity to do much except on weekends. The first few weekday evenings I explored, but once I'd "gotten it", there's not a lot to experience on a Tuesday at 8pm in Saigon on foot, so pretty quickly I was done and waited for the weekends to see more.
 
But yeah, point well taken, I'm sure I'll have less time to work on music than I think, good reason to go light. I've done a lot of business travel, but never for that long. Except for seven months in Japan, which was pre-DAW days anyway. 
 
I figure I can add Sonar & EW Play to my work laptop, which means a single machine would be going, and then buy the little Roland USB interface thing, bring my mic and desktop mic stand, and RENTING A MIDI KEYBOARD!!! What a great and in hindsight obvious idea!!! Still to be seen how much travel within Australia there will be.
 
And.... meeting up with other musicians? What a concept. I'm someone who has been writing music for 36 years, and have NEVER been in a band. Oddest thing, while I know that you can't follow an Eaug-9 chord with a plain Amin without throwing at least a 9 in there (and ooh, that C to B voice leading could be sweet...) , get me in a room with another person and I can barely plunk out Three Blind Mice. It's weird, but true.

When you make it here, let me know and if you're close you can come stay with us for a while. Would like to make a fellow Sonar user feel at home in a new country. There is even hardware you can borrow for the duration of your stay if it's of practical use to you.