Best music recording software for Windows?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

I'm looking for a GarageBand equivalent for Windows. Something with try-before-you-buy capability would be excellent. Mixcraft looks good; any opinions on that or other recommendations?

[Pat Farrell]

I don't know what Garage Band does.

For years, I used CakeWalk's Sonar. Its a full featured multi-track mixing and effects package, roughly comparable to Pro-Tools.

There are a fair number of free multi-track packages for windows N-Tracks is one.

[Maneesh Godbole]

In the past, one of my friends, a closet DJ, helped me create a ringtone, by clipping the guitar strings from a song. He used Gold wave for it. I have never used it personally, but the UI looks promising.

[Jesper de Jong]

I was going to say Audacity, which is a very popular sound recording and editing program, but it is not a GarageBand equivalent (it doesn't have the capability to sequence instruments etc.).

[Bear Bibeault]

I know a fair number of musicians -- I live in Austin, after all -- and a whole bunch of them switched to the Mac just because they wanted to use GarageBand as they couldn't find anything comparable for Windows.

It's been a number of years so that might have changed, but it shows how highly GarageBand is viewed in the community.