MOTM

Would you be willing to have a dedicated computer for your music software?
If so, I think many of the bug / crash / "POS" issues would be non-existent.
Most problems arise from conflicts between different drivers, extensions,
problems with cracked software, etc. If you keep your machine lean, and use
another computer for your internet and gaming, it will likely behave - PC or
Mac.

A DAW is such a personal thing... I would recommend you try them all out
before you buy. What works for one person, might be unusable for another.
Download the free demos from the manufacturers' websites and try them each
for a while to see what you like & dislike about each.

At the studio, we use a Pro Tools|24 system, and it's AMAZING. I really love
it. I wouldn't replace this setup with anything else for recording the kind
of bands that come in (everything is mic'd or DI'd, no MIDI, nothing fancy).
But... when I work on my own projects, I use MIDI extensively, and couldn't
give up Digital Performer for the way it effortlessly combines both MIDI and
audio environments simultaneously.

Digital Performer... I love it. The only thing I would change about it would
be to put some of the DSP on a chip like Digi has done. But still - I've
gotten 72 audio tracks before, with tons of plugins, before my 450 mhz G4
started to sputter. That ain't bad! As one of my friends observed: "if it's
good enough for Wendy Carlos and Danny Elfman..."  ;-)

best,
- Scott
____________
http://www.red-noise.com
http://www.strawberryplanet.org