Reson is the shit dog, Im new too (I jus talk alot) and if I had to recommend somethin to you it would be reason, but then again its all preference. I picked up an mpc(didnt really need it though) it does alot of the same things as reason BUT (here comes the only difference between hardware and software) it comes down to whether you feel more comfortable creating music hands-on (like bangin out drum patterns on the mpc) or if your like me and you like to just point and click away. I know how you're feelin right now so you prolly want like suggestions on what to get so Ill give my SUGGESTION but dont take it as god's word because you can do alot of things.
-First thing I dont know what kind of computer you got but I had to get another Mac because my programs almost seriously fucked up my Dell, I got an emac works pretty good for me.
-Reason, check out this site
http://www.propellerheads.se/ and look up what reason does.
-Reload,Recycle-go with reason Reload changes file formatts so that you can use them with recycle which is used for sampling.
-You're going to need a midi controller, sumthin like a Triton (its a Keyboard) which is a very good machine but you could also use other Keyboards with very good results like a Roland.
-Protools Mbox-now I dont know if you plan on editing or not, but when I first started I thought mbox was like the holy grail or somethin but its not.
-get some sample cd's, check out
www.banginbeats.com
That about it I think again its just a suggestion.
