@ Tsarik - Actually, Alchemy has a digital-additive component, but it also is capable of resynthesis, whereby samples are used as the basis of additive partials, spectral-level editing, sample playback, granular synthesis and analogue-modeling.
I understand and agree that hardware imbues a level of intuitiveness and control that just isn't possible in software. Indeed, I prefer hardware over software for this reason.
However, I feel that software has definite benefits. I'm currently living at a friend's house, and almost all of my gear is packed away in boxes while I look for a flat. I'm pretty happy that I still have a means of writing music when the urge takes me, and it's because I have a few good softsynths that I can do it. Also, the music I'm writing at the moment uses a lot of sounds that are completely impossible without software, such as various spectral-level and buffer-scrambling effects that have no hardware equivalent.
I'm not arguing that software is unequivocally better, not by a long shot. I just kind of wish people wouldn't form such black-and-white opinions of things, especially when it comes to really subjective issues like what sounds better...
EDIT: Or to tether my point more to the original thread, as much as I'd love to have a pimped-out 1040Ste with a Midex to hook up to my JP8000, Sirius and Electribe, as well as a Virus for VA, a V-Synth for some sick granular action, and an SP-555 for sampling, not to mention the gear to record and mix it on; in many situations, including mine, it's completely impractical to have all that when I could get results that are almost but not quite as good using my laptop and a MIDI keyboard with the appropriate software.
