Windows 8 Tablet and Traditional Windows Apps.

[gertsy]

If you can afford it a Surface Pro 2 will do all that you are after. Plus provide a full blown music workstation and DAW. Tee'd up with a wireless mouse for legacy apps and a music controller pad for Surface you can run the runtime apps AKA Modern UI. As well as a full blown DAW at the same time and integrated. USB 3 and touch. But it is clearly expensive to have this capability. I have a Dell XPS 12 and the 10 point touch interface is usable but crap for write to txt in notes. The Surface sh1ts all over it from a usability perspective.
Dont expect to find this sort of information in an in depth tech review from a digital tech rag. They will clearly tell you surface is sh1t and get many thumbs up for doing so. (Cheers all round, here, have some more tofu doood.)

Having tried "Yogi", Dell, and Surface 2 Pro. I can tell you IMEO the Surface is a superior offering and representative of the price you have to pay.

Overkill for your initial thoughts though, for sure.

Or you could just get a $79 android tablet and you would have a cool $79 Android tablet to show your friends. You have to put your music productivity ambitions on ice though.

[gertsy]

There does seem to be an issue with midi with 8.1 on usb3.
MS are aware and trying to get it sorted & there is a workround.
 
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2014/01/21/windows-8-1-usb-midi-device-works-on-usb-2-0-port-doesn-t-work-on-usb-3-0-port.aspx

Wow blissfully ignorant of that.  I'm using an M-Audio Fast Track Pro at 128ms Latency with no issues.

What kit are you using?  I haven't tried my cheapy USB midi cable though.

[gertsy]

Indeed, I just looked at Ebay and the prices make it totally unworth it, so instead I picked up an old laptop for $35 shipped. Not that anything I intend to run Windows on is worth even that, but it will get me by and serve my basic purpose until Windows 8 completely flops and I can get my hands on a tablet for less, much less.

Thanks all for the advice and info!

Not sure of the logic there. Wait for a product you really want to fail so you can get it cheap. I suppose it's a realistic proposition if you're not one if those people who then whinges about lack if support.