Happy birthday. Hope you’re good.

Korg actually has a VST Wavestation as part of their Legacy Collection. I’ve heard it’s great.

For a DAW I’d recommend Cubase, or if you’re a Mac guy then Logic is a pretty awesome value.

For dance sequencing then Live is pretty awesome too.

Synth-wise the Native Instruments Synth collection is good, as are Gmedia’s stuff. Take a look at the KVR Audio forums – http://www.kvraudio.com to see what others think of the products.

Here’s some free stuff to get you started. Drop me a line if you have any questions – I love talking about this stuff.

VSTHost: http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm

YellowTools Independence Free: http://www.yellowtools.com/ has great sampled instruments for free

Saved by Technology has a lot of great stuff on its site: http://www.savedbytechnology.com too

Being a “hardware guy” who also uses software, I must say Propellerheads Reason (now at version 4) is your best bet for real-time software sampling. It will work with a plethora of controllers, offers the Redrum drum machine (which can load samples), the NN-19 (basic sampler) and the NN-XT (more advanced sampler).

Get a hold of Propellerheads Recycle, a useful utility for sample/loop manipulation, completely compatible with Reason (through Reason’s “.rex” file compatibility):

http://www.propellerheads.se/products/recycle/

As for a software equivalent to Groovebox sequencers such as the Roland MC-303, MC-505, Yamaha RM1x, etc., I would highly recommend Ableton Live:

http://www.ableton.com/

Ableton can control Reason, acting as the sequencer through it’s “ReWire” compatibility. The “Session View” in Ableton allows complete live control of sequences and audio loops/segments and has the performance feel of a “groovebox” sequencer while offering the typical “Arrangement View” of DAWs and Software Sequencers such as Cubase, Logic, etc.

Your M-Audio Axiom will be at home with both Ableton Live and Reason.

Hope this has been helpful!

~Justin

Joe