I know that you are new here and you seem very intent on getting your questions answered.....however, to be fair, you need to limit your postings of a single question to one forum. Choose one that most matches your situation, which would be the budget gear(right here) and ask away. Those that can help do canvass the entire forums when they are on.

Your duplicating stuff here.

If you are going to use a computer for recording as indicated by using Fruity Loops, you don't need the VF160. Think of the VF160 as a fancy 16 track tape machine with some built-in effects.

I like and use the VF160s but I don't think it's really what you need.

Going the computer route is probably best. I recommend that you try out FL Studio before you buy it. It may not be the best thing to use for making beats only because of it's sounds.

As for the Akai controller, if this is your first I would not recommend it, ONLY because of it's limitations. Sure the pads are great but you've only got access to 16 of them at a time. When it comes time to write some musical stuff, you'll really wish you had a standard keyboard. I'd recommend getting a controller keyboard instead. That will give you access to a lot more MIDI notes at one time and give you more flexibility right from the start. If you really like the pads, some of the controller keyboard have pads on them.

Try some of the freeware stuff out there first. Get your feet wet. Then after using that for a while, you should have an idea of what you really want/need.