my setup

just in case other people are into this sort of thing, this is my current setup.

Ableton Live (LE) is my main DAW.  I've never used anything else because it works so nicely.  I'm trying out Reason right now but I think I'd just use it as a plug-in within Live, not as a secondary DAW.  I only have LE because I find I work well with restrictions.  I don't know why that is.

For VSTs I'm a huge fan of Native Instruments.  I have Massive, Absynth and FM8.  For drum sounds I use Xfer's Nerve in combination with Live's Impulse.  I also use Amplitube, but never for guitars.

For hardware I have my parents' Yamaha Clavinova (I don't know what model), a Korg NanoKontrol, 2 crappy NDX 200 CDJs (don't hate), a Novation Launchpad, a KP3, an Oxygen 49, and loads of fancy guitar pedals.

My guitar setup alternates between going right into my sound card and my tech 21 trademark 60 amp.

I use my parents' speakers from the 80s for monitors.  My reasoning is that if the music sounds good through those things it sounds good through anything.