if you've got extensive experience with hardware and maintain that point, fair enough. if you never touched an emu sampler and a mackie desk in your life i suggest you pipe down.
i have some experience with it, and i do think you can make the same in the box, but i wouldnt for the life of me know how.
nothing ive encountered in software so far sounds much like desk gain and hardware eq, cept maybe impulses.
the filters of the emu used to be impossible to do itb, now there are a few ways, but it still doesnt yield the same unique sound of the emu.
a little of both is my take on it. i use mainly hardware for my sounds and then its back into cooledit for some more editing and some vsts in fl studio. rinse and repeat. best of both worlds etc.