Flying by the seat of my pants with this machine. Was told to purchase Embird to convert PES patterns to send from PC to Embroidery Machine. Doesn't seem to be the easiest. Should I buy Brother Basic? Any suggestion? Thx.

I have PE design and its working like a charm but you do not need it converted. there are free progrms  doing the same such as Wilcom Truesizer or Pulse Ambassador. 

I know that you will eventually know Embird program, many people use it for converting and more, -  you can expand with add-ons, but you will need to download designs from internet

Oh no, you do not need to buy the Embird for converting, you can just buy PES designs, 

i also have the same machine and never converted any design because all digitisers create designs in all formats which includes PES.

 I have started by collecting freebies in PES and then started buyinjg designs, I wont have enough life to embroider them all, but it keeps me busy. i use Sew What pro if I want to converst designs to fit the 5 x 7 hoop our machine has. Just watch he threads and have look at the different places that seel designs and you will see all designs are sold using PES.. If you need help just yell and the Brother sisterhood will come to your aid.

You need centered embroidery in software. Also this is not problem in machine. One remark., if your machine have only small hoop size, design, probably not be open in machine - not read.