I use several DAWs for whatever functionality suits the job at hand. I also use Ableton Live. The Live Lite package is awesome and you don't need much more really to make great music. Live excels at being more a creative/ideas/scratchpad kind of thing becuase of its fairly unique paradigm. Having said that I've been using it more as a linear DAW lately to complete tracks just like you would with Cubase. I know lots of people use it like this anyway (even film composers) but many people will couple a DAW like Live with a more linear/traditional alternative such as Cubase.
I have Cubase Pro. Also have Elements on one machine. Again, you don't really need much more. It's expensive but Steinberg have a sale every summer or so iirc and you get about 40/50 percent off. You can also upgrade from more basic versions which brings the price down again. You can get these licenses free with certain Yamaha hardware or even buy one for like a fiver in the kvr marketplace or gearslutz. For a beginner, even something like Elements would be overkill.
With regard to using cracked software, I would advise against it. Not because of muh morals/ethics, but because there is such a plethora of great free or low cost software out there right now, it's easy to get your head stuck up your arse. Also, if you can afford it, it gives you a sense of self-respect and pride and provides skin in the game. It makes it easier to get support as well. I certainly wouldn't judge anyone for using cracks though - I do myself - but only for testing or for stuff that is no longer available. Everyone can make their own decisions on this.
A good DAW to start off with is FLStudio. You can buy a basic version of this for not much money then upgrade when they have the odd sale. They also do a discount on your birthday as well. Plus you get free lifetime updates. It's a superb piece of kit, though it doesn't click with everyone. Some people use it as their main DAW but again, it's more of a software that you would pair with something else more linear/traditional.
Cubase started life as a Midi arranger and it has probably the strongest implementation of that, where as DAWs like Samplitude started of as more of an Audio thing, and that has great strengths in that department still. Having said that the lines are extremely blurred now and any DAW you can buy today is more than enough to arrange/mix and even master your music on. Lots of people use Sequoia - Samplitude's big brother - in the professional world for mastering for example. You can find cracks of all these programs except for Cubase Pro which has never been cracked due to its world class dongle protection. Elements has essentially been cracked with an 'extender' that provides much improved functionality making it a lot closer to Cubase Pro in features.
Samplitude is good and a lot of fun but it's a bit clunky and unstable. I like it though. It has some stand out features like true object editing of parts - a very powerful feature. Studio One has kind of the same type of concept and that is also a real powerhouse of a production system. In fact, Studio One Pro is probably closest to my main DAW. It was coded by the guys that left Steinberg and coded the original Cubase. It's got powerful Midi and Audio and editing features and it even includes a dedicated Mastering section with encoding for stuff like burning masters. It's also very stable these days, even though it can be a bit fucky still for some people.
You really need to test these things out just to see how they work on your computer system. Sometimes they place nice, but any software can be moody on any system. Best to check or even build a dedicated DAW computer if you can afford it and know what you are doing. Several companies like Scan make great computers for audio starting around the 1k price range. You get the benefit of it being properly tested plus the warranty if anything goes wrong.
A really fun program to use is Reason, which is getting a new update that gives it high-res graphics - it's a major upgrade that people have been asking for for years. Their new subscription model is a bit shit but for now you can still buy outright. It's also a good program for beginners because of its abstraction of real studio hardware - hit 'tab' and the synths and mixers reverse and you can plug virtual cables in to whatever you like and see if it works. Might not be really necessary for everyone but as I said, it's more of a fun piece of software. Lots of serious producers use it anyway, including people like Aphex Twin, so...
Another contender for a real all in one solution DAW is Bitwig. When you buy it you get free upgrades for a year, then you have to top up after that. Mine is nearly up but I'll do what I usually do and skip a version. As long as the software is working well on my system I don't like to mess with it too much. These programs are so deep as well that about 80 percent of users will only ever be using about 20 percent of functions/features. Bitwig is coded by the guys that jumped ship from Ableton, so it subscribes to that 'Live Clip' paradigm very much. But it's also got the more traditional linear functionality built in to it. It's also great for controlling external hardware because it transmits things like MTC (midi time code) and even CV (control voltage) as well iirc. MTC is a form of SMPTE that helps different hardware sync up. CV is used for triggering analog synths.
Again, wait until they have a sale because it's not cheap. And don't forget you can get versions of the 8track DAW they do and get quite a decent amount off again (by upgrading). You can buy these for a tenner, or you can track down an online magazine that actually gives this away (for the price of the mag). You can even get it for free by downloading a cracked copy of the mag and registering it with Bitwig, then you get the discount. What was about 400 bucks is now about 100 bucks!
If money is an issue and you want to be legit, then have a look at REAPER. It's coded by the guy that did Winamp. It's essentially free anyway as it just has a nag screen that pops up on startup. But it doesn't cripple any features. It's only about 40/50 bucks anyway. It makes a great alternative to something like Live because it's got a very powerful editing system for Audio and arranging that audio in a linear fashion. It's a real Swiss Army Knife of a DAW that is always handy to have. It even has some kind of extension that gives you a similar thing to the Ableton Live 'Clips' paradigm. It's also extremely efficient on the CPU because of how it's coded, so it's great for older machines as well. It also works on Linux. I've used it with WINE and it works surprisingly well, just about flawless in fact. IIRC they also have a native Linux version. Bitwig also works great on Linux as well. Harrison Mixbus works on Linux too. More and more Linux is a real viable alternative to consider with things only getting better every day. It's not quite totally there yet, but it's moving in the right direction. There are even dedicated multimedia distros like AVLinux that make life a bit easier for you by having some software pre-installed.
