newbie questions

[Darrell Adams <darrell@tamvalley.com>]

hi--just sticking my foot in the water of looping.  got into the list
via recommendation on the digital performer list
i am pretty much a studio-based composer (no live stuff at the moment)
and am interested in opinions on what is necessary or cool gear to hook
up with a computer-based HD system.  I read the article in Looper's
Delight about Cubase and MIDI applications, and that is more-or-less the

direction I will be going in.  Can somebody spare a couple of minutes
and educate me?

For the record, I run Digital Performer on a Mac (actually Power Tower)
that I have upgraded to G3.  I use a dedicated hard drive for recording
audio.  As far as sampling stuff goes, I have the Bitheadz Unity
software sampler.  Other stuff is pretty much regular MIDI, which is
what I'm most comfortable with.

thanx in advance for help!
best--darrell