Former 4track guy: Now PT/Reaper. my Plug Ins, Preamps (Questions)

[timx1386]

Okay, my collection of questions: any help/opinions with any of them is appreciated.

1) I have PT , if i switch to reaper (or logic) will my PT and 3rd party plugins be transferred?

2) I'm under the impression that interface preamps are junk. My only personal experience is with the Mbox2, which is not awesome. So I thought the best option would be to collect some decent pre's (rnp/ gap73 -could upgrade over time) and then run those into line-ins on an interface (like the focusrite 18i6) ... is this false? am I wasting my $$ by looking for preamps AND an interface??? if the focusrite's pre's are on par with the rnp, I could use my money more wisely elsewhere in my setup..

3)a few years ago I *stupidly* bought a macbook ( it doesnt have a firewire ) and PT LE + mbox2. Seemed like a good idea at the time.. My computer 'doesnt support PT10' so my options now are logic, reaper, PT9 ..or a new computer. it was a pretty big investment that I cant grow with. - Its like I bought all this stuff (just to practice) and now I need to buy a whole new setup to go further? (seems a little discouraging.) but:

4) I have learned alot about my preferences. I like recording 'in the box' .. I'm no longer a guy only using analog portastudios.. but I still keep it simple: Not many plugs, no virtual instruments. I just miss the ease and straightforward-ness of having a portastudio with 8 inputs always ready to go. I DONT KNOW HOW to get that feel - in the box. Does that make sense? I want a simple daw with good interface with plenty of inputs so I can make recording templates.. and dive into recording as easy as priming a track and hitting record. I almost had it with PTLE .. except could only hook up one pre amp/ pair of mic's at a time.. which felt limiting.

maybe my problem is I just dont have the budget to achieve what I really want in a home studio rig.. I think more so: I just dont know what direction to take at this point, what gear will help get me where I want to be without ending up dead weight in a year (like my mbox2 and PTLE)


WOW thats alot of ... rambling. I tried to keep it focused. Thanks again for any help

[timx1386]

I'm sorry, never mind. I bought reaper. I'm just going to dive in. Already answering some of my own questions by just trying it out.... which I suppose is where I should've started..

now to decide (like everyone else) on an interface!