Presonus free, is not suitable for the midi/tracker workflow use. Presonus, althoug it’s very good, is more geared towards audio based recording, than anything else. (although Presonus, in some way offers midi, it’s very very basic in features, still)
Anyway…
here is a list of other tools for computer based music (midi/tracker alike).
Classification:
- midi/audio workflow: where you are supposed to acutally play the music (midi/audio recording), for midi you are suppose to use a midi controller keyboard or midi synthesizer/keyboard
- tracker/piano roll workflow: where you create music by dragging “tones” on a grid, callled a piano roll, and visually create music, instead of playing. no midi keyboard required.
It depends on what you want to accomplish now, or in the near future (always be on the lookout of future needs).
Anyway some free music creation tools (midi/audio/tracker):
note: i don’t know any windows/OSX DAW’s that are free… listed are Linux based.
LMMS (tracker based, FL Studio like)
Rosegarden (pure midi workflow)
some cheap/ semi cheap Tracker/Midi suites, which means starter/beginner/lite versions of the big toys(see further down the list) These “cheap” versions can offer you a great starting point:
Reaper (approx 60USD), midi/audio workflow orientated (piano roll is present), quite feature rich, low resource use. Is known for an " odd" interface/workflow. Good quality.
Fruity edition of FL studio (approx 99USD) (good tracker/piano roll orientated software, used quite alot among non instrument players.)
Cubase Elements 7 (approx 99USD) (lite editon of Cubase 7, not 7.5, yet only stripped in features not quality, more midi (elements/artist version has only midi in)/audio orientated workflow, than piano roll comping, piano roll is present)
Live intro (approx 100 USD) (lite version of live 9 midi/audio/tracker orientated DAW, (good quality)
high end DAW’s (higher priced, ofcourse):
Logic Pro X (10) (approx 170USD, OSX ONLY) Apple’s current answer to Cubase (6/7), very high quality, used in many big productions/studios. (As musician, i have used Logic Pro (9) for quite some time)
Cubase 7.5 (approx 500USD) Big brother of Cubase Elements has everything most studios need, very high quality, used in many big production/studios. (As musician, I currently use this myself.)
Protools 11 (approx 600USD) (Still) heavily used DAW by big studios, mainly used for mixing/mastering, but can also do midi (hence less advanced as logic or cubase)
live 9 (approx 400 USD) good quality DAW, mainly designed for live (hence the name) performances, popular by EDM artists.
though there are many many many more… these are the most known in the industry.
NOTE: besides a DAW, you needs sound sources too (e.g. sampled instruments, synths etc) Although many listed DAW’s do have these included (in one way or another, quality differs though), it might not be enough for your needs. So keep in mind, you might need to invest in some of those virtual instruments aswel. (there are some very good free ones, but commercial ones tend to be better in general)
E.g. i have bought several virtual instruments, to expand my sound library. (e.g. M1/Wavestation legacy, VSL special editon vol 1(plus), synthmaster, rapture etc etc)