if you know reason well you can work on cubase, if you know FL you can work with logic, if you can work with logic you can work with reason, if you work with cubase, you can work with reason, if you can work with nuendo you can work with SX, if you can work with sx, you can work with logic, if you can drive a truck, you can drive a car.
Fact is that all these proggies share the same basics with little differences. Quality is relative to plugs that have been used or when no plugs are available (and wether the user is noob or not). One thing about quality remains sure, rendering engines are important as it translates your work into a fine format. So far FL proves to have the cleanest rendering engine although peeps might refer to FL as the proggie with that shitty sound and samples.... I refer to them people as noobs.... as usual...
When talking about flexibility I must say that FL is much easier to work with due to the hotkeys and the option to move windows around opposed to Reason (I'd rather work with 2 8HE racks than 1 16HE rack). Flippin to through the windows are all to easy with assigned Function keys and Tab. You might think it's rediculous to make a judgement based on these features but working 14 years with pc's makes you wanna use the mouse as less as possible to prevent RSI (it also works a lot faster).
Oke, the legacy plugs ( instruments ) on FL are crap except for FPC, Granulizer and Slicer. All those other synths/instrument are miles away from the likes of NI, Gmedia or Arturia but fortunatly you can use them in the program, so there's CHOICE from within the platform. The effects and dynamics are good and very useable but again, you can use vst's so there's choice... all midi device are available from filters to controllers for joysticks and are available as plugs aswell.
FL records audio like any other multi tracker, but has more realtime editing options or different editing options in realtime which makes the production process appealing for those who like to experiment or work the more progressive approach.
Good things about Reason...
Although I havent used 3.0 and have no intentions in doing so, not much has changed except for the mastering suite. The concept of reason wouldn't have been complete without it but if it's better than all the 1000 other potential mastering devices outside reason is a bit far fetched...Its probably good...much better when having proper nearfields (if you know what I'm saying). There's a new rackmixer of which I see no extra advantage opposed to the regular console except that its smaller.
There's this thing to turn reason into a live machine but I wonder how many hiphop heads will take their laptop and midicontrollers live to stage ( an mpc looks much slicker hehehe ). but really, that advantage has more value for the technoheads.
oke oke, the good things.....
Redrum, same like version 1.0, 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0 had no need for changes and Dr Rex. Those two are key in Reason. The synths should've been updated ( or added ) as they are way behind the competition since release 1.0. NNXT or 19 are good but not special when looking at other sample engines ( and I dislike the filters as they sound really thin ) but for the rest they have all the same features you'd find on FL, Reaktor etc etc etc.
So, get your basics on midi and audio right, you'll see that all programs relate in the same fashion, one just a bit more up to date then the other, cheaper than the other or more restricted than the other.
and that's how it goes