The question of software kind of depends on what you want to do. The software I use frequently is Cake pro audio 9, now Sonar, Acid pro 2.0, Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge 5 and Vegas audio 2. There are lots of other great programs (like n-tracks) that other folks use. They are ALL good for different things. Are you someone who is mainly going to use loops, need to edit audio data a lot, plan to mostly work with guitar/vocals, want to record a band, sequence midi tracks or ???? Do you have a powerful fast computer or something more modest? Do you want to make CD demos to get signed or mess around with your creative side? Do you have free standing synth modules, soundfonts or are software synths and samplers your big thing? How good is your soundcard? Most importlant.... how do you like to work? If these questions seem daunting, it is because music and computurs offer lots of great options right now. Download demos, read about the programs, look at the computer specs (keep in mind these are minimums--if it says it requires 32 mgs of ram, you will probably be better off with at least 64 etc). Spend a little time with the demos. Also, some music stores have software up and running and you can check those out. Enjoy!!