Hi all! This is my first post to rec.audio.pro, although I've been
reading for about a month.

I'm currently studying music at university and I wish to pursue
engineering as my career.

I want to buy my own multitrack interface for use at home, and I'm
looking at Digi002 Rack or MOTU 896HD. We use DigiDesign stuff at
school, and I'm used to working with ProTools on Mac. My system at
home is PC. Some professors warned me that other software which might
be bundled with MOTU or other cards (software like Cubase or Sonar),
are not quite as intuitive or powerful as ProTools and that I should
consider this. One student suggested to me stick with ProTools as it
is industry standard, incase I want to take anything I record to
another studio. Taking projects between home and school is not a
great concern, as we do most of that work in groups during school
time. I was leaning towards the 896HD because of 4 extra mic pre's.

So my question, and sorry it took so long to get to it, is...

Are these other packages for PC really so horrible? I've heard
extreme opinions both fore and against. Must I use ProTools if I want
to take my project to some professional studio? Surely there is a
convertor software of some sort? And do you think it is silly to
purchase a multitrack soundcard based on how many mic pre's it has? I
need 8 to record drums, but I was suggested by a shop attendant to buy
Delta 1010 and a Mackie 14-channel analog mixer for this?

I know these types of questions are boring and common... I tried to
get my answers by searching the forums, and also investigating by
myself at stores... but this is all my spare money, I hope you
understand I am scared to make a mistake!

Any help is greatly appreciated, but I understand if you ignore me

Thank you!

Cass