Mac pro video questions

Question

I'm thinking about getting one or more of the mac pro videos to supplement the logic manual in my attempt to get a better grasp of the program and its capabilities and am looking for some advice. Although I'm partially temped to just buy the whole bundle, adding $200 to the amount I'm spending on music gear in the next couple months (I'll be buying monitors and a firewire interface) is probably not a good idea, and there are some videos that I don't expect I'd use at all (at least not any time soon). Addionally, I am aware that a great deal can be learned through experimentation, but that a good course or reference guide will provide a much faster learning process for me, and teach me things I won't figure out on my own.
Basically, I'm trying to decide whether to simply get the 101 video or the producer's bundle. Here's a basic overview of what I've used Logic for so far, and what I expect to do in the near future:
-primarliy small projects--only a few minutes in length, no more than 12 tracks
-exclusively Logic's plugin instruments and effects thus far, but intend to start using some live audio as well (though VIs will still make up the majority of the music)
-I've started to work on a couple short student film projects, and plan to do more in the future--for right now, I'm content with scoring for smaller instrumentation while still developing compositional skills.
My big question is about use of the environment and whether or not I should get the corresponding video. I know that this is an extremely useful tool, and yet with what I've been doing so far, I haven't needed to deal with it. Perhaps I'm missing things that I could be doing using it for, but so far I've found that everything I've needed can be found in the audio mixer. I'm sure that somewhere down the road I'll want to be familiar with the environment's functions, but I'm not certain that I need it now with my current setup. If someone could clarify some of the environments uses that would be beneficial to my current needs, that would be super. This may determine whether or not I go for the producer's bundle.
I know the obvious answer is most likely "the bundles are worth the added expense," and would certainly agree, but I'm going into poor/in debt student mode soon, so I need to be careful. Thanks.

Answer 1

I guess the main issue here is whether I should get them all now or get them gradually. Obviously, the general feeling here is that I should just go for it, and given the money I'd save all around by getting the main bundle, it makes sense. However, I feel that, for the projects I've been working on until now and will have in the near future, there are videos I could do without. And given my financial situation (aka I work at a video store and will soon have massive student debt), it might be best to wait on those.
So I'm wondering how essential certain elements are to general versatility in using Logic, so I can decide whether or not I need them right away. For example, I'm planning on using the native instruments bundle for samples, so I'm not sure that I really need the EXS tutorial. And I've just realized that I do actually use the environment all the time, I just forgot that the audio mixer is technically part of it--so that tutorial would probably be very useful.
Hypothetically, if I were to choose 1 or 2 tutorials (in addition to 101) to buy, and given the general overview of how I've been using Logic, which ones should they be?