Reply to Couple of synthesis questions (hard and soft synths)

I can never seem to get a decent sound out of a synth, and hate using presets because i dont want to sound the same as everyone else , however i only ever use one at a time, does anyone here use a soft synth 'rack' if you like to chain sounds in/out of other soft synths, and if so how do you do it?


also, i passed on an offer of a cheap moog slim phatty, purely and simply because i dont have a CLUE about hard synths, i could probably get a decent 'sound' out of it because i know a bit about subtractive synthesis and how it works etc, but how do i get the 'noise' i have created to play a tune?

do you sample the sound into ableton and play it into there?
Do i connect my keyboard to the midi in?
whats the USB port for? o.O
What are the control inputs for and how do you program them.

Couple of newbie questions because google is little help.