Which version is good for me to buy? Logic 8 express or Logic studio?

Question

As I said in another post, I did till now all my work in Garageband. I compose mainly classical music for all kind of instruments, I don't do anything with electronic music, nor do I write pop kind of music. What I did in Garageband was setting up my tracks for the orchestra instruments, or solo piano, or chamber instruments, give them a pan position according to the Jam pack orchestra manual, and added at the end of the recording some reverb. The result is mostly good enough but especially for bigger instrumental groups, like orchestra or strings, I am not happy with the result.
This is the reason I am looking around in the Logic 8 world. I want to have better results. My question now is should I buy Logic Studio or Logic 8 express?
What is the difference between the two except the extra jam packs? I already have the Orchestra and voices jam pack and have many orchestral sound fonts that I bought in the past.
Mainstage is meant to be used for stage performence, right? I will never use something like that if it is, or maybe I didn't understand yet what Mainstage is about.
Studio effects: Logic 8 express does also have reverb effect, but are they good enough to make a good classical orchestral recording? Or do I need Studio for this?
Soundtrack Pro 2: A wave editor. This maybe I could use although I never felt the need for this in Garageband. Still, you never know.
SO what do I miss exactly when buying the express version?
Hope to get some advice on this.
Andr+e

Answer 1

Continue to use GarageBand until some new update for Logic Pro is released because upon opening your GarageBand 09 v5.0.1 projects into Logic Pro 8.0.2 you will receive the message, "Warning! This Project was created by a newer Logic Pro version. This may cause problems. Please update Logic Pro." After I hit "OK", a message says, "Logic Pro: Plug-in “Pedals” not available!, and then "Logic Pro: Plug-in “AmpSim2” not available!
Logic Pro is not for sampling right now because of my experience using it with my Mac Pro (Early 2008) 8 Core 3.2GHz, 32 Gig RAM, and Quadro FX 5600. I told the Apple store sales guy at the Apple Store that I needed comparable hardware and software for my new Mac Pro comparable to my Tascam GigaSampler PC workstation. He also had me get advice from the top trainer for Apple Logic Pro One to One training at their store. I made it clear my needs were to have the same capabilities and performance at that time that are possible with Tascam GigaSampler. The trainer said he sold his PC he used for sampling. So, in order to afford my Mac Pro, I sold my PC. Big mistake. Now I have not been able to continue working on many projects, now in the in-progress archive of mine, that I can not open anymore because Logic will not access even 3 Gigs of memory for projects with the EXS24 or any other sampler for that matter. With my Tascam Gigasampler accessing 16 Gigs was a breeze with no error messages. This enhancement will not be available until some update is released for Logic Pro above version 8.0.2.