I make hip hop/drum and bass. Theses are the programs and equipment I use: reason 2.5 (with lots of free,dope refills), Acid pro 5, Sound forge 6, Recycle 2.0, Emu mk-6 (keyboard), Korg ES-1 (sampler), Kaos pad 2, 1 Sony turntable, and a gemini mixer for sampling records. But just as always there so much more that I want. I was going to get a mpc 4000xl, but got I a bigger sampler instead (a computer). As far as virtual samplers I believe Emu came out with one. It supposed to be really good. This what I essentially use, and I'm really hapy with it. Oh yea and Pro tools 6.4, which now acid pro 5 can be used as a rewire slave.