why not try a demo first and see how you like it.
why not try the forum on their website and see what's being said about it?
why not do a Google search on it and see what comes up?

http://www.propellerheads.se

I've been using it for 3 years and it's wonderful program which can do many, many things. It can sound as "thin" or as "pro" as you want it to, depending on your programming skills. If I can clear anything up regarding Reason is that IT IS NOT only for techno/dance music, which it is so often perceived to be. If you have the right samples, you can write just about anything with it.

Enjoy.

why not try a demo first and see how you like it.
why not try the forum on their website and see what's being said about it?
why not do a Google search on it and see what comes up?

the truth is... I have... I just wanted to hear what the guys on this forum thought about it legitimacy. I would agree with your comment on how Propellerhead can sound either thin or full... the same holds true I have found with Sonar, Cubase, and others of the same.

now how about it guys... how does this program suit your needs (if it does at all)?

I use Reason on about 95% of my records for loops and keys. It rules. Not sure if you can pull of making an entire record in it... I use Nuendo for that.

Just to clarify something mentioned in the question, I don't think that anything Prop makes is "recording software", I know that Reason, Rebirth and Recycle aren't (since I have them). If you're talking about Reason, though, it's pretty nice. Intuitive if you are a hardware kinda person, and sounds very good.

A couple of downsides are:
No VST/VSTi support. This can be a pain, because the Reason effects aren't the best in the world (or the most versatile). Still, you can always Rewire it with a VST host or export invidual tracks and use plugins on them elsewhere.
No recording external audio. Again, easy to get around by Rewiring into another program or just recording in something else and loading up the wav in Reason.

Depending on what you normally do and what other software you have, those might or might not be important downsides =P A few years ago, I began using Reason start-to-finish for all of my production, but now that I have some hardware synths and a ton of good VST plugins and synths, I usually Rewire it, and sometimes don't use it at all.

I really like Reason's piano roll for midi editing, IMO it's faster and easier to do a lot of nitpicking with note placement / duration / volume / other parameters, when compared to other software... Pretty much a personal preference, though.

My vote: 8-)
HB

thanx for the review! I wasn't aware of some of these down sides - glad your clearified... I use cakewalk home studio as of now, just because of it's ease of use and because I don't really need much more considering I just purchased the m-audio delta 1010 and own a mackie vlz 1402 mixer... and I just record my own stuff as an independant musician. But I was thinking about purchasing Reason for the neat instrumental recordings I heard that it had... guess we'll see...