Thanks, I like to hear that some people are enjoying the music! You should go listen to some of the other composers on here, their stuff is really good too!
Well believe it or not, all the stuff I use was absolutely free, except Cubase SE which is used for equalization and/or live recording(mainly guitar when I do use live recording).
Fruity Loops: For importing the MIDI files and applying soundfonts/VST to the tracks and adding effects
Anvil Studio/Finale: For composing the MIDI
Soundfonts/VST: I have a plethora of these that I found ALL over the net. I couldn't pinpoint you to every place I got these from since a lot of them are just called "Flute" or "Piano" or whatever. All I can say is download every one you can get since you never know if you might use it, even for just one song.
Really just google them and you can find them pretty fast.