Personally I regret spending a year or so trying to get Reason (3) nailed... I perservered but could never get the sound I wanted and when I switched to Ableton I was amazed how much easier I could get decent results. It's probably just that Ableton's more suited to the techniques I like using though, I know a lot of people who somehow get amazing stuff out of Reason. I'd say shop around, use whatever seems to work best with your approach and then learn it inside out.