It all depends on your budget. If you have a lower budget; there's FL Studio and Reaper. If you have a higher budget; there's stuff like Reason, Ableton Live and Cubase. Personally I've only used FL Studio and it's great if you want a program with an easy to use piano roll. It goes for about $99. Combine it with a couple good sample libraries and you can pretty much create any type of music.

While Young is mostly correct, you need to factor in buying 3rd party libraries and even some 3rd party plugs when using Reaper. It does have some built in plugs but no built in sounds. This is where the cost savings (when comparing Reaper to other DAWs) actually gets skewed. FL Studio does have lots of it's own sounds but if you wanna buy a large amount of sounds then you could end up spending just as much if not more than other DAWs.

Well that's kind of what I meant when I said sample libraries. Personally, I don't even use the default sounds that much; but I use Sampletank 3 instead. You can get the SE version of that for $99. Reaper is okay too; but I prefer FL Studio's piano roll. FL Studio is easy to compose with and when you combine it with an external sample library VST; it's awesome.

You can get Cubase Elements:
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/cubase/line_up/cubase_elements_8.html

It's a Cubase version with just the essentials. It costs € 100 euro.

Then for quality sounds you can reference this thread:
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/650328-your-favourite-sample-libraries/

Cubase is lovely, I use it for all my sequencing needs. Developing your own sample databases is also a good skill to learn, lots of valuable music programming exp. there. East West, Vienna, they're all good.

East West, Vienna, they're all good.

Well Vienna is awesome if you have about $5,000 - $6,000 to spend on an orchestral instrument plugin pack. Not really suitable for someone just getting into the industry.

East West just changed the game quite a bit:

http://www.soundsonline.com/composercloud

Doesn't really work out that great for me since I already own most of these but for someone starting out, it's a FANTASTIC way to get a bunch of sounds for much less money.

i spent about 15k to get started. You've got to spend money, to make money.

i spent about 15k to get started. You've got to spend money, to make money.

True, to a degree. These days someone doesn't have to spend 15K to get started at all. That's my point. Hardware and software have really come down in price and there are more and more ways to get into the industry without needing such expensive tools.

poster did say he wanted to make music for people, but understandably people often get that mixed up with money!.

owned my first multitrack in 1991? spent a lot of money, had a lot stolen, had a lot stolen, still got a rep as an audio developer..

current studio runs on a netbook. it's small. headphones.

host.. energyXT... horridly unpopular. reason i have it is because the developer extended a copy to me. he's! not! a! mason! reason i use it is because it does all the stuff i want.

synths.. code them all myself, but of course i have decades of synth experience to coddle to..

not trying to beat anyone over the head with it, but here's an example of someone with industry cred who doesn't have or spend a lot. so, g/l and happy doing things.

btw, when it does come to money in the industry, i may have given away some clues with exclamation points earlier eh trendsetters