For the synthesis side of things I would suggest you find a copy of Reason v4.0.
I've been producing EDM / IDM for around 6 years now and Reason has never failed me. I've at least dabbled with any software product you can think of, and although there are other more expensive and high caliber products on the market, Reason gives you everything you need to start producing great sounding tracks.
It gives you multiple solutions for synthesis, drums, dynamics, sampling, mixing, mastering, and much more. This sounds like a really cheesy sales pitch, but I can't help it =P I used to sell the hell out of these when I worked music sales.
The only catch about Reason is that you would have to outsource for any live instruments or vocal processing you'd want to do. I've found two easy ways around this in my experience though. You can either use Reason's sampling system to bring in any pre-recorded audio file, or use ReWire to send your song, track by track, into a recoding program, (Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase, Logic, etc) which then not only allows the ability to record live, but enables you to do more in-depth post mixing/mastering.
Don't let the inability to record vocals and live instruments turn you off of the program though. With just a simple midi piano and a usb cable, you can record with any instrument the program offers, in real time sequencing. If you pick up a controller with advanced functions like assignable knobs / faders / transports, you can fully automate any effect or parameter in the program by hand, making it even more hands on. It's still fully functional without a piano, but you would have to mouse-draw in all of your notes, same as any other program.
Another great feature of Reason is it's user community. The program itself comes with an ungodly amount of patches for every device it carries in it's arsenal, with the ability to mold absolutely any sound you can think of. However, there are certain webpages where Reason users upload custom-made patches, or entire collections of patches, free to download. I:'ve been "patch surfing" since I got the program and I still havent found where the user-made trail ends.
Overall, for midi sequencing, I love Reason above all else. My studio consists of a $100 61 key midi controller, $400 studio monitors, and a computer. I've had alot of experience in different studio setups and digital is really the way of the future.
I could go on and on about this subject, but I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.
If you have any questions, shoot me a PM! It's always good to see more people get into production. And if you do end up going the Reason route, you can troubleshoot me all you want.. I know the program better than I know myself. For as much as I've typed about it, the program is fairly easy to get started on. It's all of the detail that takes time to hammer out.
Propellerhead's Reason 4.0, check it out!
Also shoot me a PM if you would like to hear what I've been able to produce with just Reason, maybe give you a better idea of what it can do.
EDIT: In reference to post above, Reason is from the same devs as Rebirth
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