> Trouble is, the set of places where I'm allowed to make noise and the
> set of places where my PC is have an empty intersection. I can use my
> laptop, but it's big and heavy and requires mains power to operate.

I thought a laptop had a battery? Sounds to me like a small laptop would 
be better than a tablet. You get a real keyboard, ability to install 
lots of developer tools, and easily interface to various bits of 
hardware via well-tested drivers and software.

> A tablet is obviously much smaller. I have no idea whether any of them
> can act as a USB *host*, nor whether Andriod has drivers for something
> as exotic as a USB audio interface. I doubt you can run Audacity, but it
> can't be *that* hard to hack together a simple Java console program that
> starts or stops recording on a certain key-press...

This was the first result from google:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.extreamsd.usbaudiorecorderpro&hl=en_GB

I suggest you get hold of a phone and try it out with your hardware, in 
the page above there is also a trial version to test if your hardware 
works or not with it.

If that doesn't work I suspect you'll have a far more painless journey 
with a laptop.

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