The Sonic Spot has recommended software for three different price classifications to help you find the best software that works with your budget.

Best Freeware

Quartz Audio Master is an excellent freeware sequencer that provides a cool looking interface and a great selection of editing features. It has most of the editing windows that are very similar to those found in shareware and commercial sequencers including mix overview, piano-roll, drum-edit, audio edit, notation and mixer. It even comes with some basic effects, EQ and MP3 decoding support.

Best Value

Cakewalk Express ($19) is a great value and perfect starting point for anyone just getting into MIDI sequencing. It provides a lot of powerful sequencing features in one of the most user friendly sequencing interfaces. Cakewalk Express is basically a watered down version of Cakewalk's top-of-the-line product, Cakewalk Pro Audio. It uses the same sequencing engine and interface found in Cakewalk's version 6 line of sequencers, but only supports two tracks of audio and doesn't provide a lot of the more powerful features found in the rest of the sequencing packages. It is a great starting point because it gives you the tools for basic MIDI and digital audio sequencing while introducing you to the same interface found in the more expensive versions, making for an easier transition in the future, should you decide to upgrade.

Best Overall

After working with just about every software sequencer available for the PC, there are clearly three that rise above the rest. Cakewalk Pro Audio, Cubase Score VST and Logic Audio Platinum all provide an incredible collection of features packed into one software package. No single one can be easily recommended over the others because it depends a lot on your needs and level of expertise. They all provide extensive MIDI and digital audio support, some combination of DirectX, VST and proprietary audio plug-in support, tightly integrated, quality user interfaces that have been fine tuned over several revisions, and tons of editing features. And, they all offer similar track overview, notation, piano-roll, event list and mixer windows. The main differences are in the interface presentation, MIDI/audio instrument setup and playback engine.

Cakewalk Pro Audio ($429) is probably the easiest to learn and use. It looks and behaves exactly like you expect a standard Windows program to (probably due to it's roots in the PC world). It supports CFX (Cakewalk effects) and DirectX plug-ins, but does not provide VST support. Setting up your instruments can be easily done from a set of options windows which are clearly defined on the tools menu.

Cubase VST ($799) is also very easy to use and has a very slick looking interface and some more cutting edge features, but is slightly more confusing and a bit harder to setup and get started with than Cakewalk.

Logic Audio Platinum ($799) is definitely the most flexible and powerful sequencer of the three, but this comes at the cost of being the hardest to learn and often takes the longest to setup. It lends itself better to live performances and custom MIDI control than the other sequencers using it's unique and flexible "environment" interface which allows you create your own software MIDI and audio routing. The interface definitely lacks the solid look and feel of Cakewalk and Cubase, mostly because it was ported from the well established Macintosh version rather than being rewritten for the PC. Logic can be difficult to setup and create music with, especially if you are new to music software. But, the time spent will be well worth the payoff of being able to utilize it's great power.