Mixpad is really easy to use. It's also free, but I think only for 30 days (without limitations). GarageBand is also exceedingly easy to use, but it's very limited and of course you have to own a Mac. If you don't have a Mac and/or don't want to get too heavily into the whole DAW side of things, I'd say just evaluate Mixpad and drop the $39.95 for the registered version if/when the trial period runs out. If, however, you do want to dabble in DAW, you should check out Cubase 5 Essentials. For the price ($150) to functionality to quality ratio, I haven't found anything even close.