There are a variety of free shareware applications for users looking to try home recording for the first time. The ever popular Cool Edit Pro (Now Adobe Audition) was the standard application for education, small radio stations and the like. On the Mac, the Garageband application fills this role.
There are a number of applications in the middle of the marketplace that are affordable for the bedroom user. Steinberg's Cubase SE and Digidesign's Pro-Tools LE are stripped-back, or "light," versions of their professional cousins and are often included with the purchase of starter digital instruments such as keyboards, synthesizers and audio interface devices.
At the top end of the audio software market are Digidesign's ProTools and Apple's Logic Pro Studio. These programs provide the highest-quality audio recordings and the most advanced editing software tools. Though their fidelity is unsurpassed, these applications come at a price and require considerable hardware to run effectively.