Touchscreen ?
I love my 23" Acer. A 27" would be better. I mounted it like a control surface.
No drivers or special software needed (if your on Windows 8)

I like the idea of touch screen, but really love the feel of real faders and knobs. Too much time behind a console, I guess! lol
 
What to do, ..... what to do ......

MixedLogic M24, best one out there when it comes to Sonar. Outstanding piece of gear!

aerogel
Thanks guys 
The  Allen & Heath looks very nice and sounds nice problem is I have already invested in out board tube gear Avalon Grace etc so looking for more Control Surfaces..As for the Slate between this along with his Virtual Mic system I would have gone this way if it was start up, looks like back to chaining control surfaces. have not had a chance to look at the Mixed Logic...My number one concern is with all of them is functionality with Sonar X3 
 

 
The GS is an all in one interface & control surface with motorised faders (if you buy that version) as well as a dedicated MIDI area with knobs, buttons, transport controls etc. If I had your budget it'd be a no-brainer for me and I'd sell my other outboard gear including my MCU & XT.
 
The routing flexibility that even the ZED-R16 has is superb - all them other toys and controls of the GS must be heaven.
 
If you want CS only the MCU is pretty good especially if it gets full functionality back. At the moment access to the PC control is limited. - I'm using my ZED for that via ACT.

Thatsastrat
The new X Touch (wait until about 25 sec in) from Behringer looks promising.
Lots of features without the Mackie price tag. I have the BCF2000 and it has held up well, and it works.

yeah I saw this as well and apart from the wait till shipping it looks like we can all go back to a hands on experience. Good on em!
Of course so long as the motorized faders are quiet and it works well it'l sell like hotcakes at that price. I want one, "the compact"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00EOrLkpVQ

BJN

Thatsastrat
The new X Touch (wait until about 25 sec in) from Behringer looks promising.
Lots of features without the Mackie price tag. I have the BCF2000 and it has held up well, and it works.

yeah I saw this as well and apart from the wait till shipping it looks like we can all go back to a hands on experience. Good on em!
Of course so long as the motorized faders are quiet and it works well it'l sell like hotcakes at that price. I want one, "the compact"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00EOrLkpVQ

Oh yeah, gassing for that X-Touch!! $599! If it plays well with X3, my old MCU will be history. The best part is the transport section/scrub wheel are all in the same area and position as the MCU. Another Mackie killer on the way (hopefully).

I think that Mackie just let the MCU rot as a product - and has been milking it for quite some time. You really need only to look at their product line-up vs past years.
 
I can only speculate as to why, but a lot of gear companies have managed to get behind the eight-ball. I suspect that many of their (current?) owners leveraged the hell out of them and had to curtail development during a downturn and still haven't quite recovered. So much for Wall Street thinking...


Which is why I admire Behringer. He's already faced the brickbats and managed to persevere.

Well, I look at it like this.
After alot of opposition from the competition and the obvious design rip offs early on it stands to reason Behringer will get a few products right.
Here down under gear is expensive and Behringer have done alot to make gear affordable for those starting out but to be considered professional there are some things you don't touch. 
But the knock on effect has been to keep all gear in the market at more reasonable costs.
 
When you look at their 32X digital mixer and a few other lines including  they bought out some reputable brands you can see they got some serious R&D happening.
 
But like most am wary as I have bought some crap Bass and an Accoustic  modeling pedals from them that didn't stand my rigorous use and got screwed by the company that sold em to me as they went out of business keeping the broken units and never replaced them under warranty. Okay we're talking $140 all up but still it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
 
On the up side some better built stuff has lasted over 10 years. A couple of UX weighted midi keyboards and a tube pre amp and a V verb unit that is getting classic recognition. Oh and a AHA8000 that gets some love.

I think Behringer have missed a trick not having separate branding for their more pro gear. The X series stuff is really very impressive.

Regarding consoles and controllers and so on, I'm getting very interested in this:
 
http://www.softube.com/index.php?id=console1
 
Bit different in that it's not a DAW controller at all. You insert the Console 1 plugin into every channel, and it then becomes your channel strip. Ships with an SSL 4000 emulation, can be expanded with other Softube plugins.
 
Sort of falls short in that it doesn't have any transport controls. That combined with something with some faders and a jog wheel and so on could be pretty cool though, I think.