Reason!!!

Looks like everyone has a different opinion. It''s probably not helping you narrow it down if you''re trying to decide on one. Nevertheless, here''s my 2 cents...
I really like Sonar. It has tons of great features, and is fairly easy to learn.

To narrow it down, your best bet is to have a look at the features you need and the price you can afford, that should cut out quite a large number.

DirectMusic Producer is free and really good, however you can only input notes in piano-roll form so if you feel uncomfortable with that you might not want to use it. Piano-roll pwns.