I made the same move for the same reason and I came to the realisation that you are going to be tied to a computer regardless. Unless you plan to go back to cassettes or tape machines. Daws make production a lot easier not to mention storage. Even with modern hardware storage still isn't fun. Not to mention the price to fix hardware isn't fun either. My mpc 2000 isnt working right now and to get it fixed will cost almost as much as I paid for the machine 2 weeks prior to it dying. I can sell the screen in it for the same price as I paid for the whole machine. I'm making this point because hardware adds on a lot of new expenses. As much as I enjoy working with hardware software in this day and age makes more sense. I'd recommend against making the jump.