Your off to a great start! What I'm going to say is of course a matter of opinion,I would go for a 76 key minimum controller with a good supply of knobs and sliders. I could never picture myself with one of those mini-keyboard controllers.
Not that edirol isn't also good,what has recently caught my eye was the CME controllers,for a few more clams you get this very solid controller that has capability for firewire audio and breath controller support. M-audio,who I believe owns evolution also has some great controllers although not matching the quality of the CME uf series.
Also a matter of opinion, I love the native instruments softsynths but find myself playing the M-audio key rig because it is as the name implies a rig of all the most used keyboard instruments.The B-3 emulations in key rig are very good as well as the analog synth and FM sounds.And for 99.00 its a steal.
Good Luck,Tim