Logic Pro

Logic Pro is the best value in music software on the Mac, and it is not close. $199.99 once buys a professional DAW plus a sound library — orchestral instruments, synths, drum kits, loops, guitar amps, mixing and mastering effects — that competitors sell as add-on packs costing more than the app. Apple has never charged an existing owner for an update, which means people who bought Logic Pro X in 2013 have had more than a decade of free major releases.

The recording and mixing side is ordinary in the good sense: it works the way engineers expect, with proper busses, sends, automation and plugin delay compensation. The parts that feel modern are Session Players, which fill in drum, bass and keyboard parts that mostly sit right, and the stem splitter, which pulls vocals or drums out of a finished mix well enough to be genuinely useful.

Two boundaries. It is Mac only, so a Windows collaborator gets stems, not your project. And the iPad version is subscription-only — buying the Mac app does not touch it.

If you make music once a month, GarageBand is already installed, shares the format, and opens your project in Logic the day you outgrow it. Start there.