Q: what's a moderately priced but decent brand to try. I need something that isn't too complex to use, until I become more familiar with it. I already use audacity, I'm looking for something a little better now.
A: A very useful application is out there for free (freeware) and it is called Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) and it has all the features you may need to produce audio like a pro! If you don't feel it's up to your demands, then I would strongly recommend Adobe Audition (previously Cool Edit Pro), it is the best Audio recording/ mastering software for PC that I have seen ( I tried many other audio software like Wavelab, soundforge, Cakewalk, cubase and many others that may exist no more, but Adobe Audition is still the best for WAVE form sound files and midi playback), if you need a midi/audio editor then go for Cakewalk (now Sonar). Good luck