Good cheap way to get classic synth sounds?

Hey,

I came up with this good idea, and I was wondering if this would be a good idea.

I'm thinking instead of spending loads of money on getting synthesizers for the band, I could just have attach a midi controlled keyboard to a laptop with a music studio program and set it to virtual instrument plugin of some kind, say for Cubase, and then connect the laptop via audio adaptor to your amplifier and Viola! Instant synthesizer.

Although I haven't really heard the sounds from these virtual instruments, I'm going to take the guess they don't quite match the warmthness of the sound of higher quality synthesizers. But is this a good feasible idea?

Thanks so much

Yeah VST's are the way to go. They are ultimatly more usefull. Although I will warn, the really good ones you'd want to use professionally carry professional level price tags. I'm sure longtime professional musicians and people with freaky sensitive ears can hear the differences but for most people the best VST's are nearly indistiguishable from real. (although the real thing might be cheaper)  There's plenty of free ones and even free (demo) software available for these things if ya want to try it. I play with quite a few free vsts, its fun.

Kvraudio.com has loads of freebies.