"I am aware that I can simply use a midi interface to hook the guitar up to the computer"

What? Guitars come with midi out these days?

Re: Extremely confused on what soft/hardware to use..please

tmv1987 wrote: and also which software is best for programing beats AS WELL as accessing synth sounds AND recording.

FL Studio is pretty nice. It bundles several different synths, a step pattern sequencer, and audio recording into one package. (careful, FL Edition doesn't have the audio recording, but I think FL Studio does) The synths are not spectacular, but pretty good.
As for an interface. I would look at the M-Adudio Fast track. I have had no latency problems with my M-Audio USB audio interface. Even the real time guitar effects don't have any real noticeable delay.

The Roland guitar system has had MIDI almost since the protocal was first developed. I'm sure by now others have followed suit in one way or another. (Not a guitar player, don't play one on TV, etc.)

Just to make sure, I spent about :30 on google and found this:

Current MIDI Guitar Systems

Roland has been playing the MIDI guitar game continuously longer than anyone else in the world. The company currently offers the GR-33, a converter/sample player with built-in arpeggiator and effects, and the GK-2A hex pickup.

Blue Chip Music offers the AXON AX-100, described at the Music Industries Corp. site. More information is available at Joel B. Christian's AX-100 page. Blue Chip also offers the GK-2-compatible AIX-101 hexaphonic guitar pickup and the AIX-102 pickup for four-string bass.

Yamaha offers the G50 Guitar MIDI Converter, based on older Axon technology, and the G1D hex pickup.

Virtual DSP Corporation has announced its MidiAxe, which incorporates a new patented miniature guitar-to-MIDI converter system concealed within the body of a guitar. The system is currently available in the iGuitar, from Brian Moore Guitars, and the MIDI Fly from Parker Guitars.

Shadow Elektroakustik offers the compact Shadow SH-075 MIDI guitar controller. More information on this system is available from Moore Music and Joel B. Christian's Shadow SH-075 page.

Bono Electronic, a longtime maker of accordion to MIDI converters, now offers the GM-3 MIDI Interface, along with an array of six different magnetic and piezo hex pickups. (Thanks to Stuart Poulin for the updated links.)

Fender offers a Roland-Ready Strat®;

Kaman offers Roland Ready Ovation models;

Godin offers Synth Access steel-string and nylon-string instruments;

Starr Labs offers the doubleneck Z2;

TimTone Custom Guitars builds to order.

RMC Pickup Co. offers pickups which can mate the Roland, Axon and several other MIDI converters not only to guitars, but to numerous other stringed instruments. The output(s) of these piezo pickup systems can also be amplified and used directly. RMC pickups are used by numerous builders, and are installed in the Brian Moore, Parker, Timtone, and some (but not all) Godin models referenced above.

What about bass?

The laws of physics work against using a bass to trigger a synthesizer; it takes so long to detect the pitch of low notes that tracking is extremely slow. If you're still game to try, Axon and Yamaha both offer divided pickups compatible with the Roland, Axon and Yamaha systems. Peavey's CyberBass, which featured a built-in divided pickup, is no longer made.
Most of these systems can be used with any six-string, steel-string guitar. A growing number of guitar makers are offering instruments with Roland GK-2A or compatible pickups built in.

Hey thanks for the responses. GeckoMusic, I am aware of FL Studio, but have heard that it is not really up to par with many of the other software out there in terms of synths (as you said) as well as recording ability. A friend of mine told me my best bet might be to get Reason for my recording purposes, and Logic for my synth/beat programming needs (it may have been the other way around, im not sure). I read some reviews of the M-Audio Fast track and people seem to be complaining about compatibility with Win XP -post SP 2. I have SP 3, so am wondering if this will cause a problem. A few people are saying there is serious latency, so I'm wondering should I go for a firewire interface instead? Is the difference that great? And also my 16 track has midi in and out ports, as well as the s/p dif and adat ports I mentioned earlier. Does this mean I could essentially use my 16 track as the interface? If so, how would I do this? Thanks for the tips so far though

Edit: I've been looking into pci ADAT cards...would I be able to simply use my multi-track recorder as an audio interface and hook that into any DAW like Sonar, Cubase, etc? Will I be able to produce identical results as if I were to buy an individual audio interface with mic and midi i/o?

FL Studio is a good at both type of application, and has a little bit of everything in one interface. For starting into sequencing and recording, I think it is great. Download the unlimited demo and see what you think. It just doesn't let you save. Personally I don't use it much any more, but I also don't do much synthetic music. I don't have the fast track, and use PCI cards on my DAW, but the M-Audio Jam-Lab I have (USB) works fine on windows XP sp 3 and with Vista. My Vista machine is multi use.