I went the VST route too.. and it works great for me both in the studio and / or when I play with a band and I don't have to be the whole sound and provide the drums. In a band I prefer using them because I find it much easier to control that stuff in real time vs either a workstation ( or at least my workstation anyway ) or an arranger.. Also, NI B4 rocks.. so do the CS80 and Moog modules.. Absynth, Alpha, etc. None of my hardware boards have have quite anything on par with the sounds those babies can produce, nor the depth ( and ease ) of real time editing, so while it might never matter to the audience... I like it... helps makes me a happier player anyway.

But.... in a OMB situation or when playing duet without a drummer, I found using the VST stuff to be way more cumbersome work than I ever wanted to do and I also found that this in itself surely takes away from the performance itself. Lord knows I tried it and found that for me every variation I could come up with simply felt too cumbersome.

I have the T2 here because overall in a live OMB setting I still think it's simply the best option I have right now. The drums are more than adequate in this setting ( for me anyway ). It's simple to operate which means I can put more thought into actually trying to entertain, and when I turn some or all of the arranger parts off ( I like to do this a good bit ) and do "acoustic" covers, there are some very good sounds ( panel voices ) there to work with. Yep.. I know It's vain.. but I love it when someone says, "I can see that was all 'you' doing that ", and can appreciate that I can actually play keys. OTOH, it's also a blast when a good musician ( but one who doesn't understand arrangers ) asks almost in amazement how I can manage to control all of the arrangement parts and still make it all sound somewhat credible.
Of course I have to make it sound way more difficult than it really is.. lest he or she might try to do it too and wind up sounding even better at it and eventually replace me ( just kidding folks.. well maybe..lol )

To put it another way.. ( and plagiarize someone elses thoughtful work in the process ).. I find that the T2 makes a great hammer.. but not every kb playing situation is a nail. I can replace "T2" in this blatantly plagiarized statement with "VST.. Motif Es, etc" ...

Regards

AJ