Xerogh,
First of all, DON'T PANIC!!
It IS a maze of possibilities and choices out there. There are several ways to get help though. 1/ Ask here (well done for that!) 2/ Try looking at
www.computermusic.co.uk and if you can try and snag a copy of the magazine. It's very helpful and lays out the different possibilities and choices in a friendly way. Their online material is pretty good. 3/ Another source is
www.sospubs.co.uk. You have to pay to access some of their articles but what you get is exactly what is in the magazine. It tends to be a little more technical, so probably better once you've started to get the hang of things.
I really would recommend Cakewalk Sonar as a sequencer. It will do 90% of what you want it to do right out of the box. You don't mention what OS you are running, but Windoze 2000 or XP have audio drivers that allow you to get pretty low latency. Look for WDM audio drivers on your system. (I'll explain latency later...) If you have the Audigy breakout box (or front panel) then you won't need a MIDI interface - there are MIDI ports on the front panel. If you don't have the front panel, then all you need is a cable that plugs in to the joystick port on the "soundcard" and gives you a MIDI in and out. These should be readily available. With Cakewalk you'll find controllers for the POD allowing you to setup changes to your sound from within the track you are creating. NICE!
For building drum tracks I'd REALLY recommend something like Fruityloops. It really is the simplest way to set up drum patterns, and you can pull in your own drum sounds as samples to make it sound exactly as you want. You can also set up the basic track and then swap sounds around until you find exactly what you're looking for. It also has some pretty unique effects and sound generators / manipulators that allow you to really screw around with the samples you are working with (without changing the samples themselves). All in all, it's pretty much excellent. And (as I've said elsewhere) the free upgrades for life mean that it's an excellent investment.
For synth sounds, there are some pretty cool free DXinstruments for Cakewalk, and again if you buy FXpansion's VST adaptor then you open up the possibility of using a whole new world of VST plugin instruments and effects (including Fruityloops itself). A lot of these are free, and Computer Music has distributed some really neat VSTi's for free recently (drum/sample synth, Analogue style synth, sampler).
For recording, mixing and sequencing Cakewalk Sonar is all you'll need. Some of the pro-level mastering tools aren't as good as say "Pro Tools" but it's a much more intuitive program to get started with and it'll get you most of the way to where you want to be.
Latency - when you record into the soundcard you can set up Cakewalk to allow you to hear exactly what will be recorded, including effects etc. However this means the sound needs to get into the card, around the processing and back out. Generally this puts pressure on the CPU and the soundcard. Slower drivers, CPU's allow you to work at 100ms latency (time between playing and hearing) which unfortunately gives a noticeable delay that's hard to work with. WDM drivers and a snappy CPU can take you to 10ms. Which is MUCH better. However, you can (and I DO) use Sonar with regular drivers but just don't use the option to hear the effects (input monitor). I record straight from the line2 input (or other front panel input) into Cakewalk. I use the Soundblaster control panel to monitor using the PC speakers or headphones, rather than using Cakewalk's "input monitor". If you have an external effects unit anyway, this won't really be a problem. I apply effects, EQ etc. after the event.
Rebirth and Reason are FANTASTIC packages but geared pretty much at the dance fraternity, and not really for you to play in and sequence your input. I'd say Cakewalk Sonar and Fruityloops is what you're after.
Hope this waffle helps. Let us know how you get on...
M
