out of his mind newbie questions about the cakewalk v-studio 100

  my cakewalk v-studio 100 will be here in a matter of hours and i have a couple of questions to throw out there for you experienced users before is begin to integrate this into my system. first off: i have a focusrite saffire pro 24 firewire audio interface. and i have a sinking feeling that the preamps in this unit will be better than the pres in the roland. please pipe in if you have any opinions about this. this unit works flawless with Sonar Producer X1 expanded. There is a lot of gain in those pres. i've never had it up above 7. i suspect that i can use the focusrite saffire pro as a standalone pre-amp, so that's covered if i'm too disappointed with the roland pres. besides it makes good sense to have a few different preamps around for different color and i have the pres in my mackie vlz pro. my first question; is it possible to connect the VS's midi I/O's to my computer and use the VS controller and ACT funtionality that way? and not having the usb connected would i be able to record standalone? that way would i be able to record to the disc? and could use the vs-100 as a card reader and send the information back to the computer as a usb device (not an audio interface?) am i out of my mind? being that the focusrite is firewire and the roland is usb, i couldn't run the two units concurrently as audio interfaces. would i be able to use the focusrite as my audio interface and the vs studio as a controller via midi(not usb) i/o's? could i use the vs-100 as a usb interface card reader? would this have to do with loading or not loading particular drivers during the install? not to pressure anyone, but if you could respond post haste to this reply it would be greatly appreciated as my vs-100 will be here in a matter of hours. thank you in advance for your feedback