Best program for beginner in producing?

If you go in blind, you'll give up on anything after 5 minutes.

Everyone is probably going to recommend what works for them, so take recommendations with a grain of salt. Along those lines, I like Maschine and Pro Tools……which is weird for dance music, but it's what makes sense to me. I believe a bit more like an engineer than a composer, and Maschine is so focused on beat/groove sequencing with such bad built-in effects and mixing tools that it forces me to focus solely on the beat/groove……then, once I'm happy with the arrangement, Pro Tools gives me the best mixing tools I've found in software and is (IMHO) the easiest to actually record in (you know…with microphones……if that's your thing).

IMHO, the best thing you can do is watch as many tutorial videos as you can find……from beginner to advanced. By the time you've learned enough to have a chance of knowing what you're doing when you dive in, you'll probably at least believe you like something better than the others……go with it.

And if you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. Most of the time, you can sell your license (if anyone wants to buy it) or maybe get away with a trial version for long enough to see if it works for you. If you don't end up liking your first choice, try and work with it long enough so that you know what about it doesn't work………and see if you can do enough research to find something that fixes those problems.

As for general popularity, Ableton Live kind of wins at Dance Music.

Maschine (or an MPC) and Pro Tools mostly dominate hip hop, and Pro Tools dominates in recording studios. Part of PT's dominance was that it was one of the first to market that did what it does and when your company's entire livelihood is based on the functioning of one piece of software……you're not likely to change it. The Studio I interned at in the spring used a version of Pro Tools that came out in 2007, for example.

Logic is probably the best bang for your buck, if you already use a Mac……but it's Environment is about the most confusing thing I can imagine, and it's bundled synths have virtually unintelligible UIs……still……a lot of good music has been made on it, and it makes a lot of things easy……it's also in the (seeming) minority that allows you to compose on a score……if you like that.

Lots of people really like Reason, and despite preferring Pro Tools, it's mixer (based on the SSL 4000G+) has the best metering of any DAW and works completely differently from everything else………you might be able to wrap your head around virtual cables better than the way the others do signal routing……or you might believe it's hokey.

Lots of people swear by FL Studio. I don't use Windows, so I can't really comment.

And at least as many people swear that Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, Sonar, Sequoia, or any of the others are the only way to go.

Realistically, they all do the same thing, and they all do it very well. It's just a matter of which one works in a way that gets out of your way and lets you be creative……and you won't really know that until you dive in.

If you go in blind, you'll give up on anything after 5 minutes.

For the bulk of my production work, I've since moved onto Logic Pro.....why? I liked the workflow and the sound you get is first class studio quality!
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Everyone is probably going to recommend what works for them, so take recommendations with a grain of salt. Along those lines, I like Maschine and Pro Tools……which is weird for dance music, but it's what makes sense to me. I believe a bit more like an engineer than a composer, and Maschine is so focused on beat/groove sequencing with such bad built-in effects and mixing tools that it forces me to focus solely on the beat/groove……then, once I'm happy with the arrangement, Pro Tools gives me the best mixing tools I've found in software and is (IMHO) the easiest to actually record in (you know…with microphones……if that's your thing).

IMHO, the best thing you can do is watch as many tutorial videos as you can find……from beginner to advanced. By the time you've learned enough to have a chance of knowing what you're doing when you dive in, you'll probably at least believe you like something better than the others……go with it.

And if you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world. Most of the time, you can sell your license (if anyone wants to buy it) or maybe get away with a trial version for long enough to see if it works for you. If you don't end up liking your first choice, try and work with it long enough so that you know what about it doesn't work………and see if you can do enough research to find something that fixes those problems.

As for general popularity, Ableton Live kind of wins at Dance Music.

Maschine (or an MPC) and Pro Tools mostly dominate hip hop, and Pro Tools dominates in recording studios. Part of PT's dominance was that it was one of the first to market that did what it does and when your company's entire livelihood is based on the functioning of one piece of software……you're not likely to change it. The Studio I interned at in the spring used a version of Pro Tools that came out in 2007, for example.

Logic is probably the best bang for your buck, if you already use a Mac……but it's Environment is about the most confusing thing I can imagine, and it's bundled synths have virtually unintelligible UIs……still……a lot of good music has been made on it, and it makes a lot of things easy……it's also in the (seeming) minority that allows you to compose on a score……if you like that.

Lots of people really like Reason, and despite preferring Pro Tools, it's mixer (based on the SSL 4000G+) has the best metering of any DAW and works completely differently from everything else………you might be able to wrap your head around virtual cables better than the way the others do signal routing……or you might believe it's hokey.

Lots of people swear by FL Studio. I don't use Windows, so I can't really comment.

And at least as many people swear that Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, Sonar, Sequoia, or any of the others are the only way to go.

Realistically, they all do the same thing, and they all do it very well. It's just a matter of which one works in a way that gets out of your way and lets you be creative……and you won't really know that until you dive in.