Best,,, Sonik Synth 2, Sampletank, and Philharmonik. My go to sound source. I also got into a bunch of eSoundz Group buys for Sampletank sounds. I got into a lot of group buys, and felt I got a pretty good deal on every one I got into. I also bought a used Roland XP 60, which I love. I guess I have to add my DX7, which has been in my set up for around 20 years. It's been a reliable and good friend for all these years.

Tassman 4, FM7, Dimension Project 5, and V Sampler all are nice.

Worst,,, not many bad ones, but some that became "obsolete" quickly. My Ensoniq Mirage is the best example.

This is a great thread. Interesting...worst thing...not sure I hav3 one but if i did it would be.............
worst thing purchased for my studio i suppose....uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
how about least used?.......wow i dont have a worst buy....my setups pretty simple but im glad to hear a fellow p5er say he wished he would have gotten a delta 1010..cause it was the sound card i choose for my new dual core system that p5 doesnt support so that's a wee bit disappointing but we can dream...ugghhh the best purchase I ever made in this regard was getting kinetic 2 or 3 years ago...that put me on p5...p5 opened me to Sonar and well the rest is history....not mystory the real story...what!...okkkkkkkkaaayyyy!

Best: Sonar, BCF2000

Worst: Edirol PCR-50 Midi Keyboard Controller (dead key issues within 3 months), BFD - OK if you are a drummer I guess but requires to much work to get anything useful out of it in my opinion.

Best: take a guess...

Worst: Edirol PCR-30, take a guess...

Best:
Soft Synths - Rapture, Dimension Pro, Z3ta+, LinPLug's RM IV, Garritan Personal Orchestra, ReFX Vanguard, Pentagon.
Hosts - Sonar 6, Project 5 (2.5) Ableton Live.
Video & Audio editing - Avid Xpress Pro HD, Sony Sound Forge 9, CD Architect 5.2
Scoring - Finale.
Keyboards -Korg Kontrol 49 and an old Roland JV-30

Worst:
Synths - Sample Tank
Hosts - Acid Pro & Tracktion.
Video & Audio Editing - Adobe Premiere & anything by Pinnacle
Scoring - Encore
Keyboards - Edirol PCR-30 - Total garbage.

Best : Sonar XL & PE versions, `59 Strat ( I´ve had it for 15 years or so ), mex Esquire, Fireface 400, Shaftesbury-LP (I regret trading it for some crapguitar), AKG Solidtube.

Worst : Guillemot ISIS 8/4 soundcard (totally without support after XP), Tassman 3, Sakai LP-copy (masonite-crap, a total sustainkiller), too small house for all my guitars, amps & other stuff. Too much alcohol & always choosing the wrong women.....
Probably coincidental...

Per

Sonik Synth 2, Sampletank

Had 2 demos on a free disk, but Sonik Synth crashed Sonar when I checked it out - I'll take a look at them again, if you think they're that good it. Maybe just a screwy install.

Worst:
Anything Phillips -- went through three CD burners and then gave up.
Soundblaster Live! Platinum -- Drivers were the biggest pain.

Best:
Pretty much everything I own now (see below). Probably the worst of this bunch is the Rolls headphone amp and the Rogue mandolin. Both are still useable, just not the best quality.

SYSTEMWARE: Dell Precision Workstation, 2.8 GHz Xeon processor, 1 GB RAM, 36 GB 10K RPM Ultra SCSI3 HD for main drive, 72 GB 10K RPM Raptor SATA drive for secondary, XP Pro. Dell Latitude D800 laptop, 1.7 gHz Centrino M, 1 GB RAM, 100 GB HD.

HARDWARE: Echo Gina 3G soundcard; Mackie 1202VLZ mixer; Yamaha MSP5 near field monitors; Studio Projects C1 mic; AT2033 mic; Sennheiser 545 reference headphones; Sony MDR-V700DJ monitor headphones; Rolls headphone amp.

SOFTWARE: SONAR 4PE; WaveLab 3; Waves Native Power Pack Bundle; EZ Drummer plus Vintage Rock add-on.

INSTRUMENTWARE: Roland JV-30 keyboard; Ibanez and Takemine acoustic guitars; Aria Pro II electric guitar; Rogue mandolin; Line6 POD; Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tube amp.

I've been buying and selling equipment for almost 25 years so I'll stick to the more recent stuff.

Best:

Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 -- it lead to Sonar 1 through 6 (and I can still unlock the mp3 encoder )!
Edirol PCR-800 -- great control surface, works great with ACT. Not the best keyboard action in the world, but you get used to it. I use it almost exclusively now.
Roland Fantom X6 -- installed the orchestral and vintage keys SRX boards. I'll probably have this synth forever.
William Coakley's Perfect Piano volume V -- loaded into the Fantom X6...it is my go to piano and it blows away the stock Fantom pianos
Yamaha S90ES -- great synth engine, great feeling keys, nice Sonar control surface for those times when I'm working a few feet away from the computer.
Spectrasonics Atmosphere, Trilogy & Stylus RMX -- great stuff...what else do I need to say?
Minimoog V -- pre-ordered this when it was announced. It was a big disappointment at first, but Arturia's updates inspired me to dig deeper and I've fallen in love with it.
GMedia MTron -- wonderful!
Voxengo -- whole bunch of things...best $700 I've spent on VST plugins.
Sonicprojects OP-X Pro -- OB-X emulation that sounds fantastic.

Worst:

OBTune -- a watered down, pace-ridden version of AutoTune that never worked on my computer.
SampleTank 2 & SonikSynth 2 -- bought ST2 at Guitar Center and crossgraded to SS2. The quality of the sounds is less than stellar (with a few exceptions) and the source sampling was sloppy. I have had these for years and the only sound I have ever used on a recording was an alto sax patch from ST2...it's pretty convincing.
NI B4 II -- foolishly upgraded the moment it came out. The Leslie simulation just plain sucks. I should have saved my $99 (especially since I have a new Korg CX3).
Roland VS-1680 -- bought this just before computers got powerful enough to record with. It was buggy and difficult to operate which detracted from its usefulness.
Pyro -- never worked...not even once.

I'm sure there are plenty of others in the "worst" category that I just can't think of right now...

Bill

Best:
Sonar
AEA R84 ribbon mic
Fender Tele Deluxe
Roland R8 MKII Drum machine (still use it today)
21" dual viewsonic monitors
Self built PC
98 Ford Ranger w/german engine (bought it new and still runs great)

Worst:
Antares AutoTune 4
Danelectro DC3 (have to remove neck to make adjustments)
Burn-It Rack mount CD burner
DBX 386 tube pre-amp
1999 Chrysler Concord (more trouble with this car than all my cars put together) sold it for $700