Cubase SX is THE only alternative for PC-Based professional/project studios. Logic has been acquired by Apple, and that means no-can-do for Microsoft XP users like myself. The complexity and learning curve might be too much for a few users, so be prepared to buy a few books and keep them as 'bathroom reading' because there is a lot to come up to speed on. I recommend "Cubase SX Power" by author Robert Guerin as a must own. The manuals for this program are entirely PDF, and are hundreds of pages long. I've learned to keep the PDF's on the hard drive 'just in case' and use a book to learn the basics of this awesome program. The interface is intuitive, and with a few clicks, one can enable and record any audio file, real-time audio instrument or vocal, and midi with relative ease. The installed effects are very handy and easily accessible. I am using this with a (souped up) EMachines T2082XP Home Edition, installed with 700MB+RAM that uses an awesome AMD Athlon processor at 166 or so. With my Echo Gina 24/96 soundcard, 2-in, 8 out, I am able to input and output studio quality sounds to wherever they may need to be.

I use a simple MIDI Oxygen unit for MIDI and use Reason 2.5 to toy with songs. I am a guitar player, so my belief is that MIDI is great but real audio is better.

My acquistion of Cubase SX was a dream finalization of an otherwise lame excuse for a recording solution. I've been down the following road for computer-based software (granted these were with inferior prior machines) with no positive resuls to speak of: PG Music's Power Tracks Pro, Cakewalk's Professional 8 (both very old and antiquated by todays versions of their offerings), and yes the current Steinberg's Cubasis VST 3.0, which I found to be a scathing dissappointment, as it lacked any features associated with a professional audio solution.

Alternative, Rock

I use a tacscam digital mixing board with dual tube mic pre's, so the sound of my vocals are very good when they are recorded.

VST's......Love em

I was using a hard disk recorder, an akai DPS 16, so this was def worth it

Have not had any problems

the windows are easy to navigate.

Hip Hop

playing: rock, blues - recording: whatever....

It DOES sound very good. That I agree.

It's very buggy! when I close the program, the blank window will just stay there and won't go. This program needs more oven time.

It's terribly overpriced.

everything, mostly vocals and acappella