Cakewalk Plugins vs outboard effects

[El Gringo Jingo]

Hi I am about to take the plunge in hard disk recording with Cakewalk ProAudio8, Acid and Sonic Foundry Mastering House with Sound Forge 4.5, CD architect and plugin FX 1 and 2.

My question: Do I need a tube preamp and tube compressor limiter to record vocals and accoustic guitar, if I have plugins that offer the same functions?

[Emeric]

Well, ideally you need a mixer of some sort. Or a good preamp. As far as tube preamps and such, if you have the money and it makes it "sound better" go for it. Otherwise, just work with what you have. If your acoustic is a good one, it will record well regardless of the amp stage. A microphone is essential though.

Emeric

[Peter Ochello]

I agree with Emeric.....I use CW Pro Audio 8 and I found the built in effects pretty useful.
I also have recorded acoustic guitar through my mixer and into my sound card
with great success. At this time I'm experimenting with a tube mic preamp
prototype from Peavey to use with vocals. Haven't got very far into that at the
moment but I'm anxious to hear the results. All in all, get a good external mixer
with reputable signal to noise specs (quiet) and see if that gets you where you
need to be.