SAWPro...
SAW and FruityLoops 3.0... that's all I need. Too bad SAW is out of business. They really did make the best stuff. The common thread of this er... thread is everyone complaining about how cubase/cakewalk/protools/logic/etc... crashes all the time. Well SAW doesn't really crash. You gotta be like checking yer e-mail, typing yer resume, recording 8 tracks, day-trading, and launching a space shuttle before SAW starts to get jerky. Forget the interface-- people will always have subjective opinions of what they like. The nuts and bolts of the program-- its code -- is the best around. Those folks at IQsoft could have ruled the market if they had made a home version of SAW. But they worked too hard on it and made it too good. SAW is like the Tucker automobile of DAW's... furthermore I reject the idea that midi and tracking MUST be in the same program. I would rather have two programs that do what they're supposed to do instead of one that sucks. Maybe in the future, when the bar is raised a bit, someone will figure out a system that has it all and does it well.
ps- if one of the programs that I have maligned works well for you, good. I envy you... despite having a modern, well configured system, I have not had your luck.