Well, I personally want to make electronica kinda stuff (trance, techno, disneyland music, whatever you wanna call it), but I also want to be able to record bands, starting with my friends band (rock).
Hard to know my budget, I'm moving out of my parents house soon so it'll be a lot tighter than it has been, but one thing about me is I don't like substituting low quality products/programs just to save a few bucks. I'll have a better understanding of my budget in about a month or two, but as far as a sequencing program goes, I figure on spending anywhere from $400-800.
I've used Acid before, but it wasn't a Pro version, but I found it really easy to use and enjoyed it. I think I'd want something with more features though, I'm not sure if the Pro version would be enough of what I want so I'm looking for other more professional programs I could use, hopefully I can find something with not too steep of a learning curve.