[linux-audio-user] Getting some hardware...

Hi folks, I'm close now to getting some hardware, so I have more precise questions before I hit one of the music stores. I'd like ot have to suggestions/comments concerning a setup for doing what I'd liek to do. And that is: being able to input sequencer data using three different approaches: percussion, guitar and keyboard. For the sound sources, I'm presently partial to hardware synths/samplers. Although I've got some good sounds in the past (using soundfonts and a Live ! card and MuSE) I still feel that the best sounds are from actual hardware synths and samplers. I'd like to have some feedback on this. Are 'software' sounds really that good when compared to actual hardware synths ? What about samplers ? Are there any pro or semi-pro hardware synth and sampler cards for the PC that could turn a PC (with an additional external MIDI keyboard) into such a beast as these Korg (or others') workstations ? First of all I do not yet have a sound card for the AMD64 MSI K8N Neo4 board I have (4GB RAM and lots of disk space). So far I see these Hammerfall and M-Audio series. I'd also like to get accoustic input from accoustic guitars, flutes, and possibly voices/vocals. And then there's the playback using good speakers. And then there's the MIDI input when more than one MIDI instrument is used at the same time. Surely there must be a patch bay of some sorts. And there are the special effects, of which reverb would be mandatory to start with. So, if I choose the hardware sounds, I'll have to get some kind of external mixer for the line outs of the synths and mikes, isn't it ? What does Ardour mixes after all ? Can it control some kind of hardware mixers of which the knobs were removed (cheaper price ?) so to speak ? Thanks a lot for any comments ! Cheers, Al