Strapped. i7 laptop/8gb ram audio interface problem--timely--reward offered.

to any of you new guys I'm Michael, am a music producer in Japan, and strapped. I have a bunch of products still unfinished on my 32bit quad but venturing out to do music scores and can't process all the power that the QL Series, Ivory, Atmosphere, etc demand as far as RAM is concerned. So, I am working with a cat who did this whole i7 64bit thing on a laptop while continuing   (I have hesitated to jump because my work is backed up and learning curves, set-up are not my forte as I play live a lot as well--and the geek side, though greatly respected, is not my .forte as well. I usually get by--but I am at a crossroads technically and need your help). So, I followed suit, got the big spec laptop but what I didn't realize having not bought a laptop in 3 years I never imagined anyone making a laptop without 1394 (Firewire) and my 2 MOTU's won't work. I went down to PC Depot here and got a Express card adapter and either my laptop didn't like it or something but the MOTU drivers went off and on, the internet card stopped working (I did system restore twicefinally ) and just finally came to the conclusion that the card isn't compatible. After uninstalling it and the MOTU my laptop is flying again.
So, when I fled technology USB2 audio interfaces were flakey--not aware of any USB3 interfaces or HDMI interfaces for laptops. What are my  options? I don't need more than 2 inputs (not using external synths but if did would go through a Stereo Focusrite one instrument at a time.) but would need to be 24/44.1/48. As my Japanese friend Tim would say, "how to  solution"?  
Any success stories out there using other that firewire on a laptop?
Thanks!!!!

If all your sources are software-based, then all you really need is something with a MIDI interface to plug your keyboard into, right? The Fast Track - or any of the other similarly-featured and similarly-priced products - should do the job just fine.  Some of the newer ones support both USB and Firewire, a great idea that I don't know why it took so long for somebody to provide it, considering the vendor's cost to add one or the other is about 5 bucks.

Another route, which would be quicker and cheaper, would be to pick up a USB MIDI controller and just use the integrated audio for monitoring. Assuming you just want a portable composition tool and will be doing your mixing on a real computer.

my wife is reading the review in Japanese and it is monaural. They are talking about monaural recording right? Playback is stereo surely? Is there a USB with stereo in and out_?

If you're not going to be recording audio through it, what difference does it make? All you care about is getting latency down to where it's feasible to play your virtual instruments in real time. Any interface can manage that as long as other things don't interfere, such as the wireless network adapter or overly-intrusive antivirus software.

There are many good USB sound cards on the market that get low enough latency to trigger synths with echo's (delays)

If your using a laptop, then USB is your best bet. Who ever told you USB cards are flakey, as you put it, just doesnt know what there saying.

Micheal... I understand where you're coming from....back when you were last specifying  and building Desktop DAW .....USB interfaces were not up to speed. I'm still using Firewire as well on my PC. I haven't wandered into the laptop zone for audio yet. It sounds like you have a nice system going....and I think Bit Flipper is correct, all you need for the immediate time being is a midi interface. You can find one as a stand alone fairly cheaply. That may tide you over until you have the resources and time to properly investigate the newer USB interfaces that will work for both your laptop and your desktop DAWs. You may find that your Muto's still retain a decent re-sale value.
    For what it's worth there is a thread on the Cakes hardware forum that concerns USB interfaces.