Making music?

Hi everyone, what software would you suggest for somebody new to using music creation software (i.e. me)? I'm not a musician, so I would rather used a built-in synthesizer than attempt to record anything and import it.

FYI the software doesn't have to be free - I just don't want software that will take me months to learn to use.

Lastly, I'm on Win7.

If you want to make retro sounding and chiptune music, I can't recommend PXTone enough. I found it fairly easy to learn and it's really fast to get things done, given the simplicity of the program.

How much music knowledge do you have?

EDIT: Here's a fantastic manual.

Cool, I'll check it out. I played clarinet for 2 years, piano for 5 years and can read music, but when it comes to digital tools and recording, I'm pretty inexperienced.

I get the basic idea behind loops and have looked at a lot of software online (I've seen Garage Band in action on my friend's Mac), but that's about it.