Which DAW are you using?

LUNA

Logic: it just works and I really like logic drummer and being able to load voice memo files into logic sessions.

Me Caveman.
Me like Audacity.
It good.
Chris

Reaper. Rarely Pro Tools, Logic, or Ableton. Usually just to bounce out to Reaper. I like the Reaper routing and manual editing. Classical is really good for editing jams together and then mix it down in regular reaper.

Pro Tools, because I love paying extra money every year for updates to my perpetual license.  And no, I get it. I'm getting new features and updates AND additional features (although I don't use the extra plugins most of the time except for sometimes Heat), so it's OK and at some point I might skip a couple years, but as long as the studio is (somewhat) profitable I'll keep it up to date (maybe).

But otherwise, Pro Tools is what I've spent the last ... almost 20 years with... so I just don't see myself wanting to move to something else.  I have Cakewalk installed but never tried it for a session. I've tried Reaper and didn't really gel with it and I've used old Sonar 4 for some live recordings a long time ago but mostly just used it like a tape machine (hit record and then moved the WAV files to Pro Tools for mixing/editing). 

also, it's probably fair to mention that I run Windows (and I know I'm in the minority) but that's because I know Windows... how to configure it, troubleshoot, it optimize it, etc.  If I switched to Mac today I'd lose 25 (or maybe almost 30 years - I actually tried Windows 286 when it first came out...) of experience using Windows.  But no, I did not use it for a DAW back then, that's been the last 17 yrs maybe?

Yeah, I was on Emagic Logic Platinum on Windows (I was even Beta Testing drivers for Emagic) ....

Then boom apple bought Emagic.

At the time I hated Apple Computers (they were awful in those days - now Mac Book Pros are stunning as is OSX)

So I switched to Cubase and I'm still using Cubase on Windows to this day as my main DAW.

In retrospect, Apple did me a huge favour pushing me onto Cubase and Steinberg apps in general (I now use Cubase, Wavelab, Dorico, Halion and Spectral Layers)

Studio One primarily for workflow reasons (drag and drop is fantastic, just enough customizability for it to be useful but not enough to drive me crazy, setting up busses and such is way easier than Logic).

I used Logic for many years before that and I still kind of miss Logic Drummer for sketching ideas. I suppose I could still use Logic for song sketches but it just doesn't seem worth the hassle, I'll never actually transfer songs over. I know myself.

Dabbled in Reaper for a while and I really loved the flexible routing. That's the standout feature. But in the end I just found myself spending way too much time battling the workflow and I probably did the least recording/writing during that six month period than any other time in my life.

Let's see, what else?

I used Deck for a while. Y'all probably don't know that is but it was one of the first DAW's available for OSX. I actually released a record I made on that software that did pretty well and got some real radio play despite sounding like garbage. That wasn't Deck's fault, that was because I was like 22 years old and had no idea what I was doing. 

And I cut my teeth on Cakewalk in high school when I could sneak into my older brother's room and use his computer. Lots of hours spent dragging midi blocks around and just generally having fun. Ahh... simpler times!

Pro Tools. I find I can use the mixer more like I would a console, and with more features. Things make more sense than other things I've tried. I was a late adopter and I think that worked well for me.

I don't care to bother with other platforms, I just want to work, and go home.

The best one: Pro Tools

Not for "Yoose Guyz".
But...

Two other very SIMPLE DAW's for your less "Programming Adept" musician friends are...

Soundbridge.
Bremmer's MultitrackStudio.
(Bandlab's features are sometimes a bit too limited for me)

On a PC BTW. So no Garageband or Logic.

Chris.
P.S. I also have N-Track 9.
Slightly more complex.
But on the more basic side of the DAW spectrum.

Reaper here.

I started using it when it first came out, around 2006.  Mostly because PT was still WAAAAY too expensive at the time and still required specific hardware to use.  I've used cubase/nuendo and PT since but nothing tops Reaper for me.  It's lightweight, can be installed and run from a thumbdrive.  You can remote control it easily.  Need to downgrade for some reason?  Just reinstall the old version over the new one.  Upgrade?  Just install the new version.  There is no fuss involved and settings just stay the same between versions.  

It's also the most intuitive for me although it's really not that different from other DAWs.  

So here's the thing, I use the Reaper 1.0 skin still.  It's boring, but everything is laid out easier to see and things are bright and readable.  I CAN'T STAND this "everything is a shade of grey" look to all the DAWs these days.  Everything is too slick and hard to see and I'm just not having it.

So anyway, I have a specific layout I use in Reaper that shows the tracks up top, the plugs in list form just below that and then the track faders at the bottom.  I don't have to flip back and forth between pages/views nor open up any secondary windows (besides the plugins themselves) or dock any floating things, or whatever other things that get in the way on other DAWs.

I also use foldering in Reaper which is SUPER handy in a way that merely using sends/bussing isn't.  I do that too though.  

I love that there is a whole community who just freely shares info as well as scripts and whatever.   Some searching will find you just about anything you need to know.  You can even do video editing in Reaper if you want through various plugins that people have made.  I don't use that and probably won't.  I also don't use the advanced routing.  

There are actually GUI skins you can use that emulate cubase and PT so folks that are used to them can use Reaper with little change.

Downsides:

People STILL seem to have a visceral reaction to Reaper being about 5 years ahead of the competition in most areas.  There is almost nothing you can say to someone who's ALL IN on PT.  I had a PT guy bring his Mac to the studio and track with that before using my Reaper setup.  His Mac died in the middle of the session and I used my Reaper PC to finish the tracking and he was astonished that I didn't have to freeze tracks or pre-render things or do all kinds of other tricks to get higher track counts.  AND my pc was way lower spec than his Mac and only cost me about 1/4 the cost of his Mac.  He kept muttering about how he couldn't believe I could just track with all these plugs enabled..  He still went back to PT and Mac despite knowing all this.

Second worst downside is that even though the community is very open and the software is so cheap, it creates a sense of everyone can ask the same simple questions over and over and over and over and then they get mad if you even hint that they've been answered already or that Kenny G. made the best instructional video for it.  Too many folks can't be bothered to search and they just rant about how nobody is spending a huge amount of unpaid time to figure out their problem that they can't even describe properly.    I can see why many companies charge so much money for their DAWs since they need to fund their helpdesk/support departments for all these questions.

Another downside is that some of the default settings are weird.  Snap to grid is way too aggressive for me and I have to adjust it so I can drag items without snapping, but also snap if I get close enough to the beat line.   I know there are a bunch of other little things I've adjusted over the years but I just keep a copy of my settings file so I can always drop that back in if I ever needed to start from scratch again. 

I know there are a few more downsides like every few years they revision Reaper beyond my license and I need to buy it again for 60$, but I can't seem to think of any others right now.

Even PT native feels like a traditional setup to me.