SpartanSheep

Well I started trying out PreSonus Studio One, and so far, I'm finding it very intuitive, easy to use, and as you mentioned, very nice looking. Of course, since I have no experience with these programs, I have nothing to compare it to. So I'll make sure to try out Reaper, Sonar, and Cubase as well. I'll probably give ProTools a miss for now, since I'm liking the idea of using free VSTs, which is harder to do with ProTools, and I'll probably familiarize myself with it at some later point in time once I become familiar with whatever DAW I choose. It shouldn't be TOO hard to switch between them once you're used to one, right? (I mean they all do the same thing anyway...) Anyways, thanks a lot for the recommendations, particularly with Studio One (since I had never heard of it, even after doing hours of research). This process is seeming much less daunting then it had before!

I know that everyone asks what DAW they should start out with, and everyone's answer is "Everyone is comfortable with something different". However, does anyone have any specific recommendations based on what I'm going to be using it for? I'm looking at either Cubase 5, Sonar 8.5, or Pro Tools LE. I plan to compose mainly orchestral music, using my M-Audio Keystation 61 for most of the input. I am getting the East West Quantum Leap either gold or silver, but I would like to be able to have the option of using free VSTs from time to time (so Pro Tools LE might not be good...). Also, I hope to be able to link up with Sibelius 6 using ReWire to do some notation fixing, or if I feel like composing some with pure notation. My computer's processing power shouldn't be an issue (3.16gHz dual core), I'm running Windows 7 with 4 gigs of RAM, and using on-board audio (but so far I've been able to get by any latency issues by using the freeware Asio4All). Thoughts?