I want to try something new, so I decided to start this little project. For a start I want to remix death/black/grind songs and if that works out try my luck on writing some material myself.

I'm looking for free software to get a start with this and if it works out I'll want to buy software. So, anyone have some tips on good software, both free and not? I'm generally good with computers and figuring out software (I work in IT), but it would be nice if the program doesn't require a week of figuring out before I can get started.

If anyone had any tips on how to handle this, it would be appreciated too.

Welllll, like anything it's going to take a fair bit of time and effort to learn and actually get good with but there are a few choices that might offer an easier start. Really, any DAW will do but you'll probably want one that has a good sequencer (for programming drums and samples and what not) and comes with a suite of samples and synths to start with. FLStudio is a good choice, the demo is fully functional so you can give it a spin. Reason is also a good choice because it comes with buttloads of good samples, loops and synths. Ableton is quite popular among electronic producers but it's probably not the best choice if you are completely new to this type of stuff.

None of these are free mind you. I'm not even sure if you could find anything free that would be decent. Maybe? A lot of people here use Reaper which is cheap/free-ish and pretty good for recording and mixing, but it's not ideal for what you're gonna be doing.

Reason is my recommendation, but you will definitely want a midi controller if you want to use it efficiently. You can check out a lot of alternative programs, or at least programs that would potentially help here, http://alternativeto.net/software/reason/?license=free

You could try Audacity, Ardour, and Rosegarden together on a linux. You'll need all three to make it tick. Currently I've set up a linux for checking them out and getting used of the interface, so far I'm really impressed for their quality, given all these are free. Do note, you'll have to do a lot of reading if you're not versed with basic DAW principles.

Audacity is a good, free, audio editor. I use it fairly often when trimming or editing samples.

I've been playing around with FLStudio. I'll give the other recs a try too, so I can decide which one I prefer.

Fruity Loops is basically the "noob" DAW. Still, it does have some functionality, and people have done some pretty neat stuff in it before. Personally, I use Ableton, but it could take a bit to get the hang of, I suppose. I've been using it for a while, and there are still plenty of things I don't know how to do in it.

It was lightweight back when it was called Fruityloops 10 odd years ago, but these days it holds it own in terms of power and functionality. One smart thing Image Line has done is market their synths as stand alone products. Harmour is an absolute beast and I know plenty of people who use it in other DAWs. But yeah, Ableton and Logic seem to be the standards for electronic music.