Jun 25, 2008 05:24 pm Hey there Honeybees, welcome to the HRC.
WAV files are what you want, as that's the industry standard (pretty much) for raw music files.
I'm not sure what computer you have, but I'm a big fan of Reaper. It's uncrippled shareware, so you can try it out for free.
If you're in the Cakewalk camp, there Sonar, which they offer many different levels of features, from Home (around 100$) up to producer edition (around 500$).
Steinberg has Cubase, which I'm not real sure what they offer, though I know they have a high end package, that's also in the 500$ range.
For free, there's kristal audio engine. many on here have started out with that, and them moved on to other programs. FOr low $$$, there's reaper, that I mentioned, but also traction & Multitrack studio, which many like.
For middle - money, I think there's adobe audition, which is around 200$ i think.
Most programs will give demos, to let you try things out. All of them do pretty much the same thing: let you edit and mix multiple wav files together, then save the project as stereo wave files, for putting onto CDs or whatever.
I didn't include Protools, Logic, Nuendo, and others, as they get more spendy, or more complex than what the home hobbyist needs (in my humble opinion).
