I used Cakewalk Pro Audio which became SONAR. A year ago I did what Mario suggested and tried demos of about six DAWs. I liked Mixcraft best. Then Cakewalk by BandLab was released and I switched back to that.

If you aren’t familiar with any DAWs, follow the advice of John and learn RealBand. Then try demos of DAWs as Mario suggests.

I have noticed that many here use SONAR / Cakewalk, but more seem to be using Reaper. Several use Studio One. It would be a good idea to choose one of those three because you could get some support here.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.