I find threads like these to be enormously depressing. I've been using various sequencers since I was 10 years old (which was 12 years ago, fyi), and I have no clue about most of what you're talking about. Reason has bad sound quality? I had no idea. Myself, I found SONAR to be pretty shitty (SONAR 1.0, mind you), and so I'm using Reason 3 nowadays. I guess using it gets you the music you want to make much faster than SONAR does, and that that's why I'm using Reason. Production and Mastering is beyond me no matter what software I use, though. Everything I make sounds like poo, sound wise, even if the arrangement and the samples are good. I still make all my midis in Cakewalk Pro Audio, though. No need for production / sound quality there, all midis sound like poo anway