Electronic Music Production

I agree with that. There's plenty of free or trial software around. See how you go with that. You might find that you can teach yourself pretty easily how to make things work. If you find you're interested but having trouble with the technical side of things, then a course would be good for you.

I have, and loved every minute of it. Going in, I didn't know what to expect, but I liked electronic music and the idea of being in a studio. I was worried that not knowing music, I would be out of place, but that wasn't the case at all.

We learned about the science of sound, complete w/ oscilloscope demonstrations; the history of electronic music; the history of computer music (both with lots of records to listen to); how to use a Buchla 200 system; how to use a mixer; how to use Protools, etc. We got to score short pieces of video; make our own musique concrete pieces, and our own songs with some of the other studio gear.

I only took beginning and intermediate Electronic Music Composition, and regret not taking Advanced. Otherwise, I'd know digital FM synthesis, and would have gotten to mess around with a Kyma system.

It didn't count anything toward my major, but was well worth it. I now know analog synthesis, computer recording, and have a total understanding of electronic music when I listen to it. Sure, I could have learned with books and the internet, but having access to all the gear to actually do what you're reading about makes it better imho.

Why not download a demo of Reason and see if you enjoy messing around with beats and synths and shit? Give yourself several weeks, and see how you feel at the end of that period.

I've tried that with one or two programs in the past (the one that leaps to mind is Fruitloops) and while it was fun it never really felt engaging. I just didn't know what I was doing and got bored!

If you find you're interested but having trouble with the technical side of things, then a course would be good for you.

See above, my major problem is the technical side of things!

I appreciate the advice everyone. I'll let you know how it goes.

We have covered notation (or at least a really stripped down version) and are currently working our way through something resembling music theory. It's pretty slapdash and rather exciting. The amount of "oh so that's how they do it!" moments is a bit embarrassing.

Everyone seems to have experience with the software unfortunately but they're still fairly inexperienced so lessons have started from scratch. I would've been totally buggered had I just bought the software and not done the course, for that alone I'm glad I joined.