Anyway.
For a DAW, I use a combination of Studio One 3 Artist(which came with my Audiobox USB) and Live 7(which my dad lets me use). I'm currently getting into doing some minor scoring for a project that I'm a part of, and I realized something: Sampletank Custom Shop wont work on either of these, since Live 7 is 32-bit only and S1 Artist doesn't support VSTs. I was able to use it in a demo of FL Studio, though.(Yes, I did crack the demo. But only so that I could save/load. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to figure out if I liked it or not. Trust me, if I decide on that, I'll buy it, and either way I'll uninstall the crack after the month is up. I'm not an asshole(i think).)
This got me thinking. I'm totally cut off from any 64-bit plugins whatsoever. I can't let Live use more than half of my RAM. Plus, Live has a lot of limitations that drive me absolutely insane, the way it handles automation, the oversimplified piano roll, the dry-sounding stock plugins(atleast in my opinion), etc. A lot of these things ring true for S1 as well, along with other things. So, if I'm going to spend the money(im releasing a single next month, i have a birthday in a couple weeks and may get a bit of money from any relatives that are feeling generous, plus I'm trying to sell a couple things. Maybe I'll sell S1 aswell, not totally sure. I did make a couple things in there before the lack of VST support became too much to bear) to upgrade an existing DAW, why not use the money more wisely to pick something more suited to my workflow? As it is, I didn't choose Live or S1.(Though admittedly, I know Live pretty damn well at this point, having started using it when I was 12. I really wanted to make dubstep. Operator confused me. It was odd.) The fact that I know Live like the back of my hand is part of what's lead me to this decision. Even my dad, who has owned it since version 7 was new and has been making music since college couldn't come up with anything relating to Live that I didn't know already. As for S1, well, I'm not about to pay nearly $100 just for VST support, something that should already be there. Lack of VST support should really be limited to Prime... Anyway, if I'm going to spend that much, I'm not going to spend it on a DAW that doesn't fit my workflow.
So, again, I turn to the magical land of KVR. I know of Cubase, FL Studio, Reason, Sonar, Pro Tools, Nuendo, and Reaper. I haven't been able to demo them all, but that will be how I make this decision for the most part. The basis of this thread is the same as my $100 synth thread; what don't I know about? What am I missing? What do you prefer, and why? Sell me.
Sorry for the book, I wanted to answer as many questions as I can preemptively.
