Nice on Dodgey that's a good platform anyway cheers.

I definitley won't be using the Pc for the internet though, I know how it is and sure I have a laptop for that.

Re: the keyboard,would the midi interface be in the connections at the back of my PC or is it to do with software, or the sound card?

I've been thinking alot about buying some hardware, namely a drum machine and a synth. From what I read and see I think its good to have a balance between software and hardware. My first step is getting the computer sorted with a sound card, nice monitors and ableton live. Then I was thinking some hardware, I was told to check out the Korg legacy synths and had a listen on the Demos and they sound phat but as you say I'd prefer to able to do all that manually............... I was thinking about a Nord Lead 2x............ any ideas on that.

I hear what your saying about the drum machines not being as manipulative as their software counterparts but I think it would be a nice toy and It might be better to mess around with by hand in the same vein as the synths. Sure you can run them through your software and manipulate them then can't you?