[RWP] First Time Reaper User using ReaAccess, suggestions on where to start, and a few other questions

[Keith Hinton]

Hello, everybody:
Allow me to intraduce myself first, briefly so that you folks can get
to know me a bit, as I'll probably be making extensive use of this
resource by posting here in the future. I promise to get to my
questions, sooner or later. :)
Firstly, I'm an independent artist, and as of last year, I do a lot of
MIDI music work primarily for fun, though someday I'd like to turn
that into a job.
I've written over a gig of tracks alone so far, most having serious
errors owing to the fact that I was stuck using GarageBand on OS X for
all of them, and one thing that cannot be done is MIDI editing.
I've also tried using a heavy intensive program known as Cakewalk
Sonar, but it had too many dropouts, etc to be useful.
Also, I can't currently afford a high-end audio interface, nor much
more than the 2011 MacBook pro I've got hear, so Windows 7 64 with the
Apple BootCamp drivers it was.
I figured to give this a spin, because a bunch of folks from another
list, the MIDImag mailing list, seriously suggested I evaluate
specificly reper version 4 for the MIDI editor improvements,
continuous bugfixes, and of course ReaAccess.
As mentioned, I'm using Windows 7 X64, JAWS (version 14) here, the
MacBook Pro, and of course, ReaAccess and Reaper4.

So, I thought I'd evaluate Reaper version 4, and install ReaAccess all
things considered.
I've now done so.
Oh, and the other thing.
I specificly chose to use the X86-64 version of Reaper, (because my
system has a total of 16GB of RAM).
I'd like it to be used by virtual instruments at some point, etc.
Unless you folks think I made a mistake, in wich case I'll overright
the Reaper installation with the X86 version.
But again, unless somebody convinces me seriously so that I've made a
mistake, I'll probably not touch the 32-bit version unless somebody
says otherwise.
What I'm now wondering, is where should I start learning?
Should I read the Reaper docs first entirely before doing anything else?
Or what.
Should I see if any ReaAccess interface docs exist, and so on?
What about common screen reader adaptations in Reaper's prefferrences, etc?
I don't know if any of you have specific settings in Reaper turned on
for full compatibility, but if you folks do, that might not be a bad
place to start.
The other question that I have (as I so wish to try MIDi work) is do
any of you on this list at all, know of where virtual instruments can
be obtained?
I'm of course, interested in free.
But I'm also interested in high quality paid-stuff, too.
So hopefully, some of you on here are MIDI people and hopefully we can
work together, (I'd prefer it that way) in finding answers.
Apologys if any of this has been asked before, but I felt it best to
start out with a  brief introduction, and then to ask what I thought
were the most important questions.
If I've done something wrong, of course, hopefully you'll all be
willing to show me the ropes.
I just don't want Reaper suddenly turning into the Grim Reaper, LOL.
I  look forward to interacting with you folks soon, and seeing what
responses I get!
Cheers

-- 
Sincerely,

Keith
Home Phone:
928-554-3936
Mobile Phone:
928-713-6370
Primary email:
keithint1234 at gmail.com