At a quarter of the price it costs to purchase Pro Tools, Acid Pro is definitely my recommended multi-track recording and mixing software for novice and intermediate artists and multimedia producers. The software is very easy to learn and intuitive to use. Special effects plugin support is great and very extendable. I've also found the the out-of-the-box effects for managing things like EQ, noise reduction, reverb, etc. - "the basics" - are better in Acid Pro than in other suites, like Adobe's. But the thing I like most about Acid Pro are the arrangement tools, which make tweaking multiple tracks at the same time very easy. The media manager and just the way each track's display can be controlled are also very nice features.

Everything from the interface to the controls to the exporting of files feels tight and solid when working with Sony's Sound Forge. Easy to get started with, but features lots of shortcuts for power users. For single track editing, I prefer working with Sound Forge over other software, like Audition or Audacity, because Sound Forge feels as lightweight, as clean as possible, without sacrificing anything in terms of editing precision. Recording with Sound Forge is also pretty easy and straight forward. I've been using Sound Forge as primary single track editor since Adobe bought Syntrillium's Cool Edit, and destroyed it when they turned it into Audition.

I have been using Sound Forge for years. One of my favourite features is the ability to zoom in and do really precise edits on a waveform. There are lots of amazing built-in features and a ton of plug-ins available for it.