Cakewalk Express is about the same price as Power Tracks pro (about 30 USD last time I looked ) . I have both. Express is a great introductory Cakewalk program and it does allow the use of .ins ( instrument ) files. Power Tracks is a very nice audio program, but my main argument against it for midi editing is that it uses Standard musical notation but not midi notation ( someone please correct me if I'm wrong here ).

Another advantage is that if you should later decide to upgrade to Sonar or Home Studio, the interfaces look and work the same, they just have more features.

There are some pretty decent freeware apps if you just want to get your feet wet too. I find that any decent pc based sequencer is easier to use for midi editing than the ones inside of any synth I've ever seen. Quartz Audio is very good. I used it for a while. So is the Massiva freeware. You can find these at Hitsquad's Shareware music machine ( there is a link to SMM on the Synth Zone main page ).

If you need a more audio based feature packed performance program, for about 40 bucks or so ( add another 20 if you need 24 / 96 soundcard capability ), N Track studio is definitely worth a look. It is a net only deal, but it's creator, Flavio Antoli, is always helpful with any questions or fixes you might need, and he responds promptly. It allows for VST plug ins and has a wealth of good features at it's price. I prefer it for audio work over anything else I have ( including Sonar and Cool edit ). It also has a very basic midi sequencer.

AJ


[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 08-02-2002).]