Thanks for the info on the arp, Inray...of course one answer leads to many more questions.

First, the background...I am a techie and LOVE toying around with the digital side of things...I'm a *cough* competent keyboardist with some formal musical training and a well trained ear. My wife is the musician, BA in music, owns copyrights to songs, the whole nine yards.

We each have some old equipment and we're now in a position to start getting with the times. Predominantly we're looking for something that will serve as a virtual band/orchestra. My wife's interests in writing and recording are more varied than mine...jazz, orchestral, rock. So the sounds we're mainly interested in are piano, organ, strings, woodwinds, drumkits. Some world sounds would be good too.

We also want 88 keys to practice our piano chops.

My first instinct was to get the Triton because it seemed to be the all in one with an easy to use interface.

But then I started playing around with some other brands and I wasn't satisfied with the Triton as much. I didn't like the piano sounds in comparison to the Kurzweil, but I hated the interface on the Kurzweil. I love the feel of the xv-88 but I miss some of the gut level control that the Triton has. Etc.

Now my thinking is to by a keyboard controller (leaning towards the Oberheim MC-3000) and then get a sound generator, maybe the EX5r or the xv-5080. This would leave room to grow with more racks as needs aren't satisfied and new stuff comes out.

Also, for tracking and recording, I was thinking of getting the digi001.

Is this sound or am I getting over my head?