Hey,


when i load an 8 bar phrase or sound effect from my synth into sound forge and tweak the sound to my tastes thats sampling right?



I think that would qualify mostly as tweaking, synthesizing
Think simple, if u some how do an audio recording then u r sampling!
So if u are recording audio from yer sint into sound forge, then u r sampling !



and when/if i take a loop from my synth and load it into a hardware sampler that hardware can shape the sound with built in effects?




It can, but the amount of the 2shaping2 depend on the type of efects it has, most samplers are also very resonable sintesizers, i.e. U'll find EGs, LFOs, Filters....



or do i have to go out and by a bunch of fx modules just do to what my computer already does?....



Not necessarily, if yer sampler as all the means then u need nothing else 'till u feel u need something else 4 real. The PC is more and more a ALL in 1 Solution, u can have a all virtual studio in it , with virtual instruments, efx processors, dynamic processors, multi-track, audio mixer, mastering suite, sample editor, etc...

Z