next equipment to accompany my MPC 2000xl?

hello everyone, I've had my mpc 2000xl for 2 months now and made over a dozen hip hop beats and completely enjoying the process. I want to take the next step and was hoping to get some advice from a few of you here. I want to layer piano and some synth sounds on my beat, I've learned how to upload vst plug ins into my computer but using them with the note pad is a pain. What equipment can I purchases to achieve some of these goals? My budget is not much $200 to $250 max? Does a synthesizer play vst plug ins?


come take a listen to what i created so far:

https://www.youtube.com/user/jeekone1

any decent one in my price range? I am looking at guitar center and there are tons of them to choose from.