Thanks for the info. Unfortunately, I doubt my PC will be able to run these apps very well, but here are my specs anyway:

P4 @ 3.06 GHz
384 MB Ram
SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio
NVidia GeForce4 Ti 4600

I've got a nice 19" Flat Panel NEC Monitor and pretty decent 3-piece yamaha speaker set.

I also have about 40GB of free hard drive space.

Looking at this, I would assume that I would need a better sound card (I actually think this one is integrated on the motherboard but I'm not sure) and more ram at a bare minimum. But I would be interested in your assessment.

Also, are you saying that you can create better sounds more easily with the software you mentioned, as long as the PC running them is powerful enough?

Thanks again.