[pk_hat]

I said it in my previous post (in your similar thread) and I'll say it again. If you're wanting to experiment with hardware, go to the store and audition a few, then decide for yourself. They each have their own character, so by saying you're wanting to add sounds over your hip-hop beats, you're painting a rather vague picture. I think Reason will do just about anything you want it to do, because truthfully, some of the best hip-hop that I've heard is actually quite minimal, using great source sounds for beats and phrase samples. The NN-19 and NN-XT samplers should be more that adequate to fit the bill.

I personally don't care for Novation synths, hard or soft, I just don't dig that sound, too fluid and trancey. Absynth is great, Malstrom (Reason) is great once you tweak it right, Reaktor is out-of-this-world sublime, and so on.

Also, NI have just released the RTAS version of Kontakt, which is making many people gitty, including myself. Have ProTools, have Kontakt, have turntable? Make hip-hop and develop your own style.

We hope this helps you out a little, but really,download all the demos you can, borrow stuff for a few days, just play and listen for what will click with you, cause in the end, we can't tell you what's good or not, only you can.