Decent music software

[Elixer]

I've always have been interested in making music. I used Fruity Loops way back when I was still a pc user. Then used Garageband since it came with my mac. But I feel like I have reached the point where I feel like I'm being bottlenecked by the software.

I was looking into a few different options and I was really thinking about Propellerhead Reason 4, they have it for $299 at amazon. I'm hoping some more experienced song writers can help me out.

 

[Luap]

GarageBand is essentially Logic 'Lite' So Logic Express 9 or Logic Pro 9 would be the natural progression from GarageBand.
Reason 4 is pretty good. But Reason 5 is just around the corner.. However, Reason is basically just synths, drum machines and samplers. It doesn't really do audio recording (although R5 will allow live sampling).
You might want to look at the Reason & Record package if you want a flexible setup that also does proper audio. Propellerheads make good solid software