Normally I wouldn't reply to this kind of post, but your name is stereoisomer, which leads me to believe you are studying O-Chem at a university. I loved learning about enantomers and stereoisomers when I was in college so I'll reply to your thread.
1) You don't need hardware anymore. I've had to live in 2 bedroom apartments for years because I had so much gear. When I got my new Mac G5 dual 2.0, I got rid of all my hardware and went exclusively to software.
2) Software sounds just as good as hardware if you know what you're doing. People on this sight spend $2000 for an MPC and then spend $400 on a soundcard. That is wrong. Why spend so much money on hardware if you don't have a proper AD/DA convertor. I used to have a $6000
Apogee AD8000 as my convertor. Don't get hardware unless you have a decent soundcard. At minimum I'd recommend some sort of apogee convertor. The MOTU sh!t won't cut it if you want pro results. Without a decent AD/DA convertor, software will sound better than hardware.
3) Software is much better because you have total recall of all parameters within a song file. You also have options like 64 break point envelopes. The truth of the matter is that hardware really doesn't have much to offer over software anymore with on exception. True analog synths sound better than software, or their virtual analog hardware counter parts. That is the only exception, so if you're looking to get 20 year old synths as hardware that would be OK.
4) Many producers who start off on software feel less pro because they don't have all that hardware. This is lame. THe truth of the matter is that it's not the gear that makes the difference, it's the composer. A good composer can produce gold on whatever is available. I started off with hardware 6 years ago. At that point, software wasn't what it is today. If I had to do it all over again, I would've saved myself the $50,000 I've spent over the last 6 years and just bought the best computer/monitor possible plus software. I would've saved myself $40,000. Don't listen to these douche bags on this sight who tell you that you need hardware to make good tracks. They're clueless, and they're just trying to justify spending so much money on hardware when they could've bought software cheaper. Trust me I know, I was one of those douche bags. I've seen the light though. Anyone who would rag on anyone for composing in Fruity Loops or Reason is a straight idiot. The truth of the matter is more and more pros are going strictly to software. The new Prodigy album was composed entirely with Reason. I personally don't like Reason because it sounds thin at times. I use all the Native Instruments software, and it sounds bitchin.
5) Anyway, I hope this helps. If I were you, I would just buy the fastest computer I could afford and load it up with software synths. That is exactly what I did, and I couldn't be happier.
Oh, here is a picture of my old studio
