[Pheasant Plucker®]

Hi there,

I have decided to dust off my studio gear after a recent gig as FOH Sound
Engineer has rekindled my interest in all things music.

Trouble is time has marched on since I last used my kit and I find that
Cakewalk Pro Audio 8 & Cubase VST 5 (confusingly the latest incarnation is
called Cubase 5) went out with the ark!

I was wondering what my upgrade options (if any) might be if I upgraded
either of my Cakewalk or VST packages for the latest & greatest or indeed if
there are any other good alternatives out there?

My main interest is MIDI rather than Audio and I would like to use my
existing hardware if at all possible.

Yamaha SW1000XG
Yamaha PLG-100DX
Yamaha 01V Mixer & ADAT card
Korg Trinity Plus keyboard
Korg M1-R module
Roland JV-2080 module
Akai S5000 Sampler
Steinberg MIDEX 8 MIDI Interface

I also have a Yamaha DS2416 DSP Factory and Creamware Power Sampler & Pulsar
II that are packed away in their boxes in the loft...not sure whether they
are best left there as I don't want to over-complicate my setup especially
as I will have to go through the learning curve all over again!

It would be nice to utilise the 01V mixer under MIDI control so preferably
the sequencer should have support by way of template or similar to control
the 01V and hopefully to use the 01V as a basic control surface using the
motorized faders or something?

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

--
Thanks & kind regards,
-=pp=-