Currently the only audio hardware I have is a Soundblaster Audigy 1 , a crappy "came with the computer" microphone, and an M-Audio Oxygen 8 MIDI keyboard. I do mostly MIDI stuff with Soundfonts, but occasionally record guitar and vocal tracks over it. Got a fair amount of cash coming in, and I've decided that I'm going to spend $700-$1000 (Canadian) on audio hardware and software. Probably going to get a Shure SM57 or SM58 for the microphone, but what's stumping me is what kind of audio interface I should get. At first I was thinking of getting the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro, which looks pretty sweet with its external thingy, but it seems that Soundblaster's cards are more geared towards gaming and home theater purposes so I'm wondering if there's a whole other world of audio cards available specially designed for musicians? Or would the Audigy 2 Platinum Pro suffice? And what other goofy little gadgets should I be looking into?

Digidesign Mbox

Check this out. It's got ProTools LE recording software with it, too. The homepage says it's around $500 (US).

Doubt it's soundfont support, though. I'm under the impression that SF's are supported merely by Creative's own cards, unless there's some kind of software renderer for them. So probably you're going to need a soundblaster anyway.

Well, I'm sure you've seen this list of software.

How about this instead. If you buy it from Sweetwater, you may still have money left over for some NI plugins.

Cubase is a very easy to learn and powerful sequencer.

You might consider..

East West Quantum Leap Symphony Orchestra Silver ed (~290) - all you need for realistic orchestral music.

Native Instruments Komplete 2 (~900) - just about all Native Instruments plugins, separately would cost $2000+. I have this, I DO NOT regret it :D

Edirol PCR-30/50/80 MIDI controller (depends on size) - Fully-featured midi controller with good action and lots of knobs/sliders for total control.