Andrew,
Reason is an awesome program and fairly affordable. Although you can't record live audio, you can write very involved MIDI based songs, even without a controller keyboard (you can use your mouse!). Reason has everything you need to make complete (drums, bass, synths, samples, just not a full voice or guitar track), polished, nearly-cutting-edge music (I say nearly, but you can actually get some very cool new sounds if you experiment deeply enough). There is a bit of a learning curve, so I'd suggest getting a book or two for whichever version of Reason you get. It really is a very useful piece of kit. There's even a full compliment of effects plugins. For the full lowdown, visit the Propellerheads web site...
https://www.propellerheads.se/
