I haven't tried WavePad, but the other NCH stuff I've used is super-intuitive, and I don't think I've ever needed a manual with any of their stuff. As for Reaper, I agree with IronCross in that it's a bit of a beast. I'm just not sure it's a good place for a beginner to start off if all they want is basic editing tasks. There's no question if you're a musician who's interested in making really good quality multi-track recordings, audacity shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath, it's just too basic. But my issue with Reaper from an editing for beginners perspective, is that it's not very accessible out-of-the-box, it's not at all intuitive, and you really need to know where to look if you're going to get useful guides for screen reader users. When I look at reaper, I get the feeling it's never passed through a marketing team with a view to capturing the largest possible slice of the market. It's made by audiophiles for audiophiles, and that's great if you're an audiophile. A lot of the language it uses is pretty jargonistic, and if you don't know what that stuff means already, you haven't a hope of figuring it out just from the name. Even when you know what the end-result of a function is, you still sometimes wonder how the hell they arrived at that name for it. Music techies doubtless have no such problems, but the brief is editing for beginners, and I really think full-blown DAWS like Reaper are something for later on. I've only used Reaper and Sonar, and I definitely found Reaper the tougher one of the two to get to grips with. I'm not saying Sonar's better, just that Reaper could do with someone coming in and toning down the jargon a bit, and simplifying things. Some will say they don't need their hand held, but lots of others do need a more easy-to-use interface, and there's nothing wrong with giving power tools to the knowledgeable, while at the same time offering a helpful wizard for the simple user.