REAPER

Greatest strength of this program:
Singular experience across 2 affordable price tiers, evaluation and 3 operating systems
(everyone has the same set of features no matter the OS or level of investment).

Performance and GUI consistency are at the forefront. It feels very much like a fully professional DAW. Combines functionality patterns from Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools, Cakewalk. Has its own feel, yet feels familiar.

It's actually worth the price, because it's not a lock-in.

My fav features and highlights:

• well thought out plug-in / processor "rack" functionality.
• digital asset management features (media explorer, plug-in explorer, etc.).
• complete functionality of piano roll (multi-functional).
• very organic and feature complete arrangement area.
• mixer and track list very well designed.
• extremely customizable mixer with customization profiles.
• unlimited routing capability.
• fine control of hardware abstraction.
• multiple ways to do everything.
• single searchable list of every action.
• full keyboard mapping.
• works out of the box.

Just a reply to user pentapower below:

No REAPER doesn't access to your contacts. It has never done anything like this in the 6+ years I've used it and I can confidently say it never will.

Unless of course you've stupidly downloaded a torrent that has been mined with a Trojan from some shady russian source, instead of the official website...

Reaper is a really great DAW, especially for a couple of thing where it is better than its competition. For recording/tracking of audio and editing of audio it is the best and extremly fast and efficient when you learn the workflow. The program also has a really small footprint, can be customised and is very flexible. The fact that all channels can be routed to everywhere and receive anything is great. Very very powerful, but might not be super easy for beginners.

Some of the stock plugs are pretty good and a lot of functionality can be added if you dig a bit deeper, but they will be pretty basic right out of the box. So beginners might find them a bit underwhelming.

I would advice all new (and old) users to learn from the videos at https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php to get a better understanding of the possibilities within Reaper.

PS: I now use Reaper mainly for tracking when I have recording-sessions with bands and artists, and when I do audio-editing. Production I now do mostly in Bitwig, but I have done a lot of production earlier in Reaper.

With the Imperial White Tie theme and the comprehensive suite of ReaPlugins, Reaper is a fully fledged industry standard DAW without limits. The learning curve is not steep but with so many useful features and regular updates, the gradual slope continues to climb as desired. The subprojects feature is a must have for any CPU intense, massively layered tracks and effects for more complex sound design, soundtrack and professional audio work.

Pros:

Great for audio and live recording.

Scripts and much more.

Cons:

Lots of features are missing in the MIDI and fx chain area.

FX Chain: there is no ability to make parallel connections between fx and synths inside a single track, this make it really messy when trying to make impressive racks or even simple parallel chains...

Automation: Automation envelopes don't give accurate results - untrustable. and there is no option to change it.

GUI: can't resize the fonts of the media browser files from the software itself since it uses windows's fonts, really hard in big screens like mine.