Apple Logic, espically coming from garageband, you'll be able to learn it very quickly and it has allot of depth to master. The stock plugins which is comes with are pretty good, as are the included software instruments, so you can start making music straight away. And, now Apple has gone solely App store, it's quite cheap, £130 or something like that. (It used to be closer to £300-£400.
Viable alternatives are Cubase, (version 7 has just been released), I have allot of experience with Pro-Tools which I heartily recommend, both of these are quite expensive though, around the £400 mark.
Other alternatives include the aforementioned Reaper, which appears to be fantastic and has a very passionate userbase and forum. Ableton Live, which I've never used extensively, I don't particularly like the workflow in it, because it's different, but it obviously works for a allot of people because it's very popular. Cakewalk Sonar, Presonus Studio One are some more DAWs.
Overall, I would say for someone like you coming from garageband, probably not looking to spend a fortune. Logic will offer you everything you need and more, at a very reasonable price.
|