if you want easy and you want drums... riffworks...

if you want midi... or plug in re-amp functionality etc... you may have to look into other DAW suites...

i recently switched to ableton... but i've used alot of them (audition/tracktion/reaper/etc)

but if the built in drum looping is your thig... riffworks is a solid jam recording application.

It depends on your interests, goals,  and pocket book.  I use Sonar Producer because I need MIDI capabilities as well as audio.  It can import audio tracks as ACID loops and comes with a very useful set of plugins to add effects.  It has soundfont capability and I use those for the MIDI drum tracks.  You can mix tracks and export audio in all formats as well, and even add video to it.  It's got a pretty steep learning curve though because of all the functionality.  It's also not cheap.

Sonar 8 ... it's really good ande very professional ...

Ableton Live, there is nothing that can touch it for composing and performing.  It's Riffworks easy to use but way more powerful when you need it.

You can download a free Live or Riffworks T4 demo to see what you think.

If you are going to invest in software it can certainly pay off to make sure it runs on the Mac and Windows.  Both Live and Riffworks do, Sonar is a one way ticket.

Good Luck!

Go for Sonar 8.5 producer.  It got a 10 out of 10 in Computer Music (issue #146).  I don't agree that you need to have an easier program to start with.  If you have an X3 which will get your guitar/bass into it (and a vocal if you want), Sonar has everything else you need (synth's, drums, pianos, samplers, sequencers etc.) to create whatever you want.  Don't waste $50-$100 on a "beginner" program that you could apply to this.  I've gone the beginner route and you either quickly start wishing it had other things or are just as complex, if not moreso, as the proffesional ones and are often less stable.  Get Sonar and a book like Sonar Power and rock & roll.  You'll have to do some learnin' but you would with a beginner program as well.  One of the hardest parts for me was the inputs and the outputs.  This was equally complex in all the programs I've used.  Also if you switch your input source in most DAW's you have to restart the program.  You don't in Sonar 8.5.  If you do this even a little, this is huge