You got many answers.... so I just put in one to.
M-Audio... Sound Card ex. Studiophile USB or Firewire.
Monitors... Ex. BX series, Tanoy or Alesis.... ACTIVE.
RAM at least 1024...
Sequenser.... Cubase, Logic, Cakewalk or PRO Tools
Reason.... I think it is a nice plugin for Some of the above sequensers.
AKG Headphones.... ex K240 studio.
MIDI control... don`ty use it myself.....
And last but not least.... some synths.
Korg, Roland, Yamaha, Novaton.... have some good things for a nice price.
Get a friend that will work with you, some times that is better... some times
Get out there and listen to musik, psy,progg, or what ever don`t deliver the full spectra of sounds.... For example.... Iron Maiden drums are better then any Psy act I have listen to.
Sorry for the bad english............