Hey bloc-head,

First let me say that I play guitar reasonably well and lots of other instruments a little. But currently my passion is creating most of my tracks using BIAB and other similar products. If a virtual instrument has only samples I have less interest in it as I prefer to build tracks from patterns and grooves and then edit them to suit me. This preference is a large part of why I love BIAB and Toontrack! So, if you prefer to play your own parts on a MIDI controller my advice might be less useful to you.

I own all the Toontrack products and Native Instruments Komplete as well. My favorite part of Komplete is Kontakt and the Session Guitarist instruments because they include real instruments along with MIDI grooves for them. So, a lot like BIAB! I also like all the synths that come with Komplete but, other than playing around and reviewing them, I've not used them in a production yet.

Toontrack products, except for EZMix, are very much like BIAB in that you can pick an instrument and a groove (MIDI), enter your chords (or use their suggested chords for the groove), and BAM...you have your track! Of course you can edit the MIDI as you wish.

Folks like DrDan and Mario have been extremely helpful in showing me how to connect Toontrack to BIAB! I learned that any Realtrack with MIDI can be exported from BIAB to Toontrack products for editing and using their instruments. I learned how to set up a BIAB chords track to directly feed to Toontrack stuff.

Since you indicated money is not a concern I'd say get the following ASAP!

- EZKeys and maybe a few add-on instruments like grand, upright and others you like.

- EZBass and maybe a couple of add-ons for any specific genre you might like

- EZDrums and maybe a couple of add-ons for any specific genre you might like