Halion is a terrible sampler, I have to agree :( For a while it's all I had too, though now I'm using Native Instruments Kontakt 2 which is incredibly powerful compared to just about anything else on the market really. Appart from your sequencer, this is one of the few packages I reckon is worth shellig out cash for. Heck you can even use its auxilary busses for external effects processing if you want! Check out KVR audio (just google it) for lots of good free plugins. There is ALLOT of really high quality stuff out there if you're prepared to dig - kinda like collecting records :-)