I hope you checked your computers compatibility first. I happen to like the Mbox 2. It's not the greatest piece of gear but it's decent. I can't say anything about the monitors. For the price they're probably pretty decent. You could certainly do a lot worse. I'm not personally a fan of the Bluebird but some people like it. You got a smokin' deal on the MPTK2 but, some people feel that it is generally a rip off in the first place. What you're really paying for in the MPTK2 is Smack LE, TLSpace, Hybrid, MP3 option and the increase in track count. Structure LE and Eleven LE are already included in PT 8 AFAIK.

Sibelius is great if you compose and like to work in notation or if you need to share you work with other musicians.

The bottom line really is that whatever tools you get, take the time to get to know them well. It's not the axe that kills after all. It's the wielder. I would recommend watching the included video tutorial. Lot's of great shortcuts.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who will slag the ProTools decision but....well, there's really nothing I can say about that. ProTools is so easy to dump on. LOL. Don't get me wrong. I love ProTools 8 but, I'm one of few that was able to run it right off the bat. Many people had problems with it straight from the box. Go check out the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://duc.digidesi…"]Digi User Conference[/]="http://duc.digidesi…"]Digi User Conference[/].

Make sure you download ProTools 8.0.1 right away. There are a lot of fixes that have made it usable and have solved most of the problems for most people. You may need to uninstal Internet Explorer 8 if you are using Windows.

Happy recording and let us know how it works out.

Thank you for the input!

I'll be sure to download ProTools 8.0.1 and uninstall Internet Explorer. Who ever wanted that browser anyway? :)

I'm pretty sure my laptop can take it. 4 gigs of RAM. Windows Vista Home Premium.

I checked the posts about the Bluebird, and you're right, many people do like. The only complaint I heard it the it's too hot. Which I don't think (possibly naively) is a big deal. Wouldn't more info being taken in be better?

I'm sure I want Pro Tools and Sibelius.

It was the Bluebird mic and the M-Audio speakers I was wondering about.

jwlit wrote: I'm pretty sure my laptop can take it. 4 gigs of RAM. Windows Vista Home Premium.

Well, I hate to be the one to tell you but Vista Home is not supported. Also many conflicts can occur with unsupported hardware. Checking compatibility is crucial when you're dealing with Digidesign. That doesn't mean to say PT won't work with Vista Home but it's not supported and if it doesn't work, Digi support can't help you because your OS is not supported. Motherboard chipset, Firewire chipset and even Hard Drives can factor. Just be careful to ensure any and all possible[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.digidesi…"] performance tweaks[/]="http://www.digidesi…"] performance tweaks[/] are taken care of.