by Dave B » Fri Jan 04, 2019 2:46 pm
It's hard to recommend software as a) they are all pretty much fully featured and b) it's down to what floats your boat really. A long time ago, Cubase was top dog for many years. Then studios all went Pro Tools. Nowadays, there's a lot of Logic as well and if you on the PC there are others that are just as good (Cakewalk was free recently and that's great). If you do stuff non-linearly, then there is Ableton and Bitwig.
Platform is a factor - you can't run Logic on a PC or Cakewalk on a Mac. Reaper, Cubase, Nuendo, Pro Tools, Ableton - all run on both.
Have a look at the features you really need and then match them up with the various DAWs. If you really want top notch score capability then Reaper may not suite. If you want a ton of midi editing then Pro Tools may be less friendly then Cubase. etc. etc. Some DAWs have trial versions - Reaper runs for free (or used to).
Also, think about if you need to pay for an all singing version of something. You might only need a cut-down version of the software so check out the various features and decide if there's stuff you can live without - it might save you a fair amount.
If you have questions, we are always here...