Bored of working so I'm going to write hit record

Can anyone recommend some good software to write my own hit record? I think the technical word is squencer. I'd prefer to pay nothing but will fork out some cash in nessacary. I'd also need a good source of samples.

Thanks for any tips.

Pro Tools

Hmmm...looks good. Easy to use?

I've always been a fan of Steinberg Cubase, but I can't find a link to a demo version for you.

Looking at their site, I see they've just released a new entry-level app called Sequel. Seems like it's pitched at Apple Garage Band level. There's a demo here.

Also worth a look are Ableton Live and Reason. Grab the demo versions and have a fiddle.

In fact, coincidentally enough, there was an article in The Guardian yesterday on this very subject.

Ok, great. Cheers for that.

The Guardian article says it all. Garage Band is excellent to start with, then on to Logic Express and then an upgrade to Logic Pro, which is what I use. Cubase is excellent for recording live music digitally. Garage Band and Logic in its two guises are better for using loops and samples, but to be fair they all do a superb job these days and accept vocals and guitars well. I started off in the seventies with an Atari 1040 which had no hard drive and was as slow as hell driving the earliest sequencers including Cubase 0.9.0.!!

To show my age, I use Logic Pro to record my 13 year old bass playing daughter and her band, and get more satisfaction doing this than I ever got doing my own thing. She played her second ever gig two nights ago in front of 300 screaming girls and their parents at her school talent showcase. In over 250 gigs, I never got that reaction!

So the answer to your question is that if you want to use free sequencing software, use Garage Band to start off with - it will just cost you a Mac G5!

Fruity Loops. Dead easy.
List of free samples and loops sites.