I, personally, use Pro Tools for recording and mixing. It's not free, but it's probably the best out there. .
Protools is awful. Proprietary madness and an extremely convoluted workflow. But along with 5 other programs (which are just as good or better), it'll get the job done if you know what you're doing.
There was a guy at PAX this weekend who talked to me for a while about some sort of NEW midi NES project he created and wondered where to promote it. I gave him the address for this website and 8bc, so hopefully he'll pop up soon.