Audacity is an excellent free waveform editor that I swear by. It is highly plugin-based, and it comes with essential tools for audio-capture (click-removal, noise removal). Also is compatible with VST and others, I believe. Check it out.
Also, for synthsizing and midi-editing, Melody Assistant and Gold Sound Base are incredibly cheap (20 dollars for MA, 30 for GSB), and there is a demo for MA with no time limit. With score editing, actual working music notation, and midi-keyboard compatibility, there is no excuse for the music-savvy to not get a decent sound out of it. There is also the option of recording your own instruments, if the strangely-limited soundbases aren't to your liking. I've been working with it for over a year, and... just be careful. If this catches on, I'd be more than willing to provide support for y'all.
I apologize if these tools were mentioned before in this thread, but I did not see them in the main listing of stuff. If my terminology is off, correct me! (And take a gander at my miniscule post-count... 2!) The learning experience is really what I'm here for.