The Kurzweils tore down the barriers between workstations and samplers about 10 years ahead of the Motif. I'm sure there was something else before the K's too.

The Roland grooveboxes have a bad reputation of being nothing but crap toys, milking on the names of the past. It's true too. Have you ever tried an MC-303? It's such a piece of shit. I'm a Roland fan (owning 3 Roland synths), but the groove crap is just embarrasing.

On the software side I think Cubase VST started a serious movement into a new direction with all its amazing plug-ins.

-tek