I disagree. Reason and FL are excellent apps that have the capabilities to do some things that no arranger or workstation can do or do as efficiently.

Putting sequences together and learning how and where drum / bass notes and phrases line up is a good way to get an idea of how music is put together. Even after playing keys for 40 years, I still don't read music as well as I'd like to, but I know entering and seeing the notes, for example, in a grid has helped me advance a bit more when I sit down at a drum set, simply because I understand the timing better and then it all seems to make more sense to me.

I'm not that familiar with Reason, though I've dabbled with it at a friend's studio. I believe it's more of a self contained package, so you need to add it's propietary brand of sounds ( refills I think ? ) in order to expand your sound library. Still, it's quite a popular app that spans more genres than just electronica.

OTOH, while FL is primarily thought of as a loop based app, it has advanced a bit beyond that. I can do almost anything in FL that I can in Sonar. You can record as many bars as you like and edit on a midi channel, just like any other sequencer. FL will also do audio recording, and is excellent for slicing and arranging audio loops. I can also record the audio for an entire song in it, although Sonar and other traditional DAW's work a whole lot better for me in this area.

FL is inexpensive enough, and you can add any VST / DX instrument oreffect that ytou like. You can find quite a few good freeware ones, done by creators like Krakli, Mik Sybrandt, Odo, Tim Conrardy, etc that will work very well for Trance or other modern electronica. If you're interested in this stuff, I would suggest joining and posting at forums like KVR-Audio, the Auditorium, etc. Those sites cater to software synths and a large percentage of the discussion and the information on them is geared toward electronic music.

I agree that a VA76 is probably a wonderful arranger, but for me personally, doing electronic music on any arranger would be an exercise in futility. The sounds and tweakability that I want just aren't going to be there.

AJ