Thanks brzilian that helped...
The worth it part might not be a accurate term i was looking for in my own question lol. He's running SL or SE I can't remember, but pretty sure SL. We record usually in the studio on Pro Tools HD systems etc. At home, that's a different story. His setup at home is shit. SM57 to behringer mixer to built in sound card on a slow crap computer running cubase. I myself, am ok in my setup. So I was going to help him out by giving him a newer version of cubase free. From what I can see, and what you told me, is the external effects issue, and of course surround sound issue. Which for me are a little more important, so I'll probably give it to him to install. This being all free of course lol. He's one of my artists, and I feel that whenever I come over to lay something down, I shouldn't be working with sub sub sub par equipment.... So I'll give him that, and my old 24/96, and 990MXL, and he should sound better.