Thanks for the responses, I'm gonna download some trial versions and give them a try.

FL Studio is quite good (I don't use it for chip music but have used it in the past) and I don't understand why so many people regard it as so comical.  If you are using a windows pc, I would recommend it.

Lots of people swear by Cubase.

Lots of people love Ableton Live...

But what do you like?  Try the demos to all the software and figure it out.  Because essentially they all accomplish the same thing, but in there own styles.

edit: Oh yeah, Reaper.  Heard good things about that program, how good it is for the price range.  Check it out.

If you're just recording, use Audacity. If you're going to do pretty much anything else, i.e. anything related to tempo or really anything else, Audacity won't cut it. As Ant1 said, Reaper is great for the price ($60 for personal use) much cheaper than anything else, really. If you're on OS X, or Linux, give Ardour a try, it's a very good free, and open source, multitrack editor. It doesn't have as many features as professional DAWs like Ableton, but it's amazing for being free. If budget isn't really an issue, I say go for Ableton.

haha thanks! I'm not one to laugh, I used to use FL back when it was Fruityloops and was just a fun little step sequencer with a ts-404 soft synth.

Reaper is very reasonably priced, as is Energy XT, both of which are very capable for recording multiple tracks and both can use VSTs too. Garageband isn't something to buy, I think, you've either got a Mac or you don't. Audacity (free) is perfectly fine for recording audio and can do multi-tracking, but not for anything MIDI.

As for expensive things, I like FL Studio (don't laugh!).

Hey all, I'm thinking about buying software so that I can record multiple tracks and and maybe integrate some VSTs and Reason. Can any of you experienced guys recommend what you think is best today? Ableton, Cubase, Garageband, Sonar etc?  I guess I'm looking for which you think has better features/user interface and lower price helps too. Thanks for your advice!