[A6] andromeda alternatives?

[Brian Offermann]

You should track down a Korg Oasys.  Hook it up in
a old rackmount pc and you've got probably the best
wind-synth hardware available.  Lots of sound sculpting
possiblities... and very smooth va models (notably
minimoog and prophet 5).  And you get physical modelling too, which 
will undoubtably open new possibilites for
you.  The Oasys also has great effects, and very flexible
midi control.  It's a synth on a pci card, with i/o and
effects.  They can be found on ebay around for $500 US.
Polyphony is based on the complexity of the model and
effects you have loaded... which can make things tricky
in a live situation.  But the sound quality is excellent.

http://www.korg.com/oasyspci.htm
http://www.korg.com/oasyspci_synth_demos.htm

The Oasys also has a talented third-party developer
community:
http://www.korg.com/oasyspci_sounds_3rd_party.htm

For (Virtual) Analog lushness, you should check out these third-party 
models especially:

o  John Bowen (of Sequential fame) has the Orion, which
is a very smooth sounding synth.  He also did the Pro5
model voicing for Korg.
http://www.johnbowen.com/nss-folder/orionoasys/
sound samples at the bottom of this page:
http://www.johnbowen.com/html1/

o  norsez makes a Juno clone called Hera-106 that's
lots of fun, and his Mekla II is also great!  His stuff
is freeware:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/norsez/oasys.php

o  Brandon Daniel has the Matrix, a modular type synth.
He was on the Oasys team.  also freeware:
http://www.fdiskc.com/OasysPCI/TheMatrix/manual/

o  and Harm Visser is just a monster designer... he has
a bit of everything on his site... check out all his
wind/reed/horn models and the ethnic variations!!
demoware/commercial but worth it!
http://www.hvsynthdesign.com

(and Dan Phillips of Korg makes awesome effects)

sorry Justin ;-)