I thought it might be useful to others to share some details on my current sudio setup I'm using to create my music. In this article I will write about software, and leave the hardware for next time. It took me a couple of years to end up with this setup, but now I can safely say, that this is what suits me and my workflow best. I've owned hardware synths in the past (Waldorf Pluse+ and Virus C), but I found, that staying entirely in the software realm is just so much more convenient and the sound quality of software instruments is catching up very quickly.

Software

I've actually purchased a licence for each piece of software listed here after evaluating them for a while and finding them worth my money. This might be due to the fact that I'm working as a software developer myself, and I see the amount of effort which goes into a quality software product. I encourage everyone who is serious about producing music and uses some applications on a regular basis: buy a copy of them! Not because the software police is going to come and getcha, but because those guys at the software companies are working hard to give you something better with each release.

DAW

Having a good DAW is key, because it's the most central part of a software studio. Nowadays all major offerings (Live, Cubase, Logic, Sonar, FL, etc.) offer similar sound quality, but wildly different user interfaces, so make sure to evaluate all of them to find the one which suits you best. Don't pick one based on what others say, this will be your tool of the trade, so you better feel right at home when using it.

Ableton Live 7

It was such a revelation when I came across Ableton Live some years ago. I've tried using various different DAW applications before, but it felt like I had to push them real hard to accomodate my workflow. With Live I felt right at home...

Instruments

After trying my luck with a Virus C (owning one has been a long-time dream of mine) I realised, that although it's nice to have a dedicated box, which doesn't eat up my CPU and works without noticeable latency, it doesn't do anything I can't do with software. Of course it has a special sound, but so do software instruments. So here they are, the instruments which made my Virus C redundant.

Cakewalk Rapture

Designed and developed by rgcAudio's René Ceballos, the creator of the legendary z3t4+sofware synthesizer, the Rapture looked very promising. I love the fact that you can get really deep into editing envelopes, LFOs and add various FX independently to each of its six Elements. There are also some great commercial preset banks available for Rapture, but they tend to contain lots of quirky sequences and morphing pads, so this is certainly not your bread-and-butter analog emulation plug-in, but it can certainly do that, too. Sound quality is great, no unpleasant digital artifacts even on the higher notes.

LennarDigital Sylenth1

This bad boy is a great counterpart to Rapture, because it's the perfect virtual analog synth for dance music. The sound of the Sylenth1 has been compared to the Virus, but I don't think this matters at all, it has its own character. Comes with more than 1000 presets, and most of them are instantly usable. There are some great recreations of classic sounds, e.g. the infamous Alpha Juno Hoover, a passable TB-303, and so on. Commercial and free preset banks are available for the Sylenth1 as well, but with so many factory presets you might not need them at all. 

 D16 Phoscyon

For some reason I love the overused TB-303 sound, maybe due to listening to lots of german trance and acid as a teenager... Anyways, I needed a TB-303 emulation, and since the Phoscyon was on Christmas sale, I went for it and I've been quite happy with my choice.

Effects

At the moment I'm mostly using Live's built in effects for sound design and basic mixing tasks, like compression and EQ. I might invest into dedicated plug-ins in the future, but for now I'm happy with these. The only missing tool in the chain was a mastering processor, so that's why I got...

Izotope Ozone 4

Whatever the seasoned pros say, nowadays amateur electronic musicians need to have some kind of basic mixing/mastering software on their computer. Of course taking your tracks to a professional mastering studio and having them tweaked by an experienced engineer will yield better results, most of us can't afford that. So for the rest of us, there's Ozone. Recently updated to version 4, it's user friendly and sounds great for its price.