[Andyyyy]

There are a few things to consider. I was late coming to music, and I left only to return as of 10 years ago. That means I was not able to develop as a player to the degree I wanted, and as we know, prog is a demanding style. 10 years ago, I traded an old synth for a Roland Sound Canvass Daughterboard, which piggybacked on a sound card. I had no keyboard, so I plotted notes on both, the piano roll and on the staff. This allowed me to write some things I could never play because they were complex. But it was very time consuming, and it was always played precisely by the computer (mechanically). I had to learn to work with MIDI to do that. But writing music live is a different ball of wax. One doesn't want to go through the learning curve of the equipment for that can stiffle creativity. Yet, as a musician learns scales and the mechanics of music, one must learn the mechanics of recording in order to record (or pay studio fees). I have gotten away from the MIDI programming and play more live, which also brings out some different music. But it can be almost as much fun to edit and process what you've played into a somewhat finished product, especially if you find someone else to add other parts.

Cakewalk (Sonar) is indeed better than a reel to reel or cassette in that it will do exactly the same thing- replace your recorder. ANd more.. it will loop a section for you so that you can, if you need to learn a part, just go over it over and over. Once you get that take that works, you delete the rest! There are many more capabilities, but this is just the begining. It's enough just to start there and that makes it better than the old equipment. Whatever you do, start somewhere and go for it!