A few questions before I buy

[KR3]

Hello,

First let me apologize for the novel i'm about to write. Hopefully some of you enjoy reading! :P

Huge thanks to anyone who can answer my questions.
I did a couple of searches and found out a couple of things I needed to know. Maybe there are answers for these too, but I must have missed them..

Ok, here goes...

I'm planning on purchasing a virus very soon. I've been trying to buy one for over a year, but I always end up spending the money before I find the right virus

I've wanted the Indigo from the start. It seems like the best option for my needs, plus it looks the sexiest. I know I will need a sequencer and we have a couple of RM1x's to use. Anyone know any problems with this combination?

The virus will be for live use right now, and most likely a slave to an rm1x.
We do not want to use a computer live as we are hardware based.
How is the midi on the virus? Do you think it will hold up in a midi chain?

It will be used as the main synth sound module with sequences running to it. I may play the keyboard sometimes, but most of the patterns we will need will be too complex, plus I have to play other machines.

How does one go about doing this on the virus? Do I need to make and save my own patterns in my sequencer and send the midi out to the virus and just tweak the paramenters on the virus, or can I load sequences into the virus itself and play them back in-time?

I'm most likely going to buy a Virus Indigo because it is compact, but still has a keyboard, and I don't want to lug around a seperate midi keyboard for the rack/desktop version. Also, the price is in my range at ~$750-900.
I'm going to wait until the TI is widely availible and hopefully the prices of the Bs and Cs drop.
The TI is too new and expensive for me right now.
The Virus C is the other option IF the price is under $1000 (rare). I've heard from a couple of people that the Indigo 2 is not as good as the original in many aspects. Is there a review or something besides the comparison chart the that shows the differences between the Indigo 1 and 2? Have any of you owned both? Which one do you prefer?

I'm sure I will have a few more questions that I hope you guys can answer. I'd especially like to hear from people who use a virus live.

Thank you.