Good advice given already. My advice would be to save up and buy a decent midi keyboard as this is the heart of production. It will be worth spending the extra as the results are far superior to a simple midi controller. There are plent second hand on offer that compare in price to a brand new controller. Cubase is great. I use it but it is expensive piece of kit especially if you are on a limited budget and just doing home recordings. There is Reaper as an alternative that would do a reasonable job and leave you enough cash for a workstation or quality midi keyboard.