What software would you recommend to me as a beginner in audio recording?

I have downloaded the FREE pro tools and somehow couldn't get it to work... what others?

I only heard of the following programs:

audacity
logic
cubase

reading your question we can only speculate

pt-free should do fine if your mac runs on os 9
but not with osX - i dont know if in classic mode

for audio recording only you dont need logic.
logic is well a little bit more than a recorder...

i would suggest you define your needs and do a little reading and researching on the net. i'm shure most of the information is out there ... ;-)

For a beginner, I have no problems recomending Garage Band. It's a great program to sink you theeth into, and with the expansion packs, you can go pretty far with it.