In no Particular Order.

1. Acid Music Studio: My Program Of choice and the best one I have used. Interface is smooth and user friendly. Makes it easy to work with my loops, and third party loops. Acidized loops have Pitch and BPM information directly in them, allowing for incredible precision. I honestly feel its the best bang for your buck. I will use it as my yard stick for the others.

2. Garage Band: Since it comes with most Mac’s you cant beat the price. It has many of the same features as Acid, but lacks some of the better ones. Its also pretty user friendly. The main draw-back is that you need a Mac to use it.
GarageBand Adds

3. MAGIX Music Maker 14. MAGIX has some good products. Its a bit more expensive than Acid music studio, but it has some nice features. Its a bit better for people looking to make their own loops. It has really good built in instruments, and effects.

4. FlexiMusic Kids Composer: A cool program for kids. Its bare bones, but it helps kids compose music with colorful Images and a very easy to use interface.

5. Logic Express: At $199 its a tad pricey. However If you can afford it, and you have a Mac, Apples Logic Express is a prince amongst Home Music Making Software. It has some of the best features, for one of the best prices you will find.

6. Sequel 2: Simple to use and fun. At $99 its affordable for the beginner, and doesn’t have so many features it will set your head spinning. The features it has a perfectly suited to producing music at home. Its particularly good with Electronica styles, and also features a large library of free loops.

7. Sonar Home Studio: At $139 its a bit high for a beginner, but CakeWalk produces some great products. If you want something that gives you incredible features for a great price, Sonar Home Studio is good. I still prefer Acid Music Studio, if for no other reason than the better price.

8. Honorable Mentions:
Pro Tools, Reason, Logic, Fruity Loops (FL studio), and Acid Pro all get an honorable mention from me.
Pro Tools is the Mack Daddy of Music Production Software. However even the seriously cut down versions of it are expensive, with the full program requiring it’s own hardware to run and costing thousands.
Reason and Logic are good if you really like making your own sounds, and working with full digital synths and stuff. I personally find them frustrating, and too involved for my taste. I will eventually move on from loops, but not any time soon.
Fruity Loops is also a good program with a lot of nice features. It’s prices are in the same arena as Acid, and it actually is a better program for getting into more involved audio production. I will likely start using it when I feel Acid Music Studio has become too limited for me.
Acid Pro is the full version of Music Studio. It has more functions, and a lot more to offer. It also costs around 400-500$

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