Personally for the better of all the evils I use Cubase, for all the whines that people make it is a well developed platform amd every DAW has it's pros and cons. As for Abletons Live I have made several attempt to try and make tracks on it and not really gotto grips with it, but that's personal.
As mentioned your tools are what YOU get used to. All DAWs do pretty much the same thing and it is really down to the features and workflow that is good for you. Hence I have used Cubase for 14 years and do not 'choose' to learn another DAW.
I have tried most on the market Sonar, Traction, Protools (hardware reliant you must have a protools audio interface or for LE M-audio soundcard), Logic (which is Mac only).
Reaper is probably a good one to try as it's cheap and is making massive headway for user support a basic verion costs £30 or you can go pro for more.
Fruity loops and Reason i would say are not great for sequencing or capturing audio, however, both are excellent for creating loops and phrases which I do and then drop into Cubase. Propellarheads do now have Record which is a sequencer for reason - not convinced myself.
As for Virus TI support, Access do not yet officiallyy support Reaper unless that has changed (but that doesn't mean you shouldnt consider it).
Cubase5 does support sidechain and is easilty implemented in a channel with the included compressors.
Cubase does not however support VST Instrument input which will probably change on the next release/upgrade (Cubase6).
Hope this is of help PM if you need some advice.
Useful links (Im in a helpful mood today) :
CUBASE
http://www.steinberg.net/en/products...alversion.html (You need an elicenser dongle!!!)
REAPER
http://www.cockos.com/reaper/ (Again demo version on download)
SONAR
http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SON...spx?Prod=SR8.5 (I do not rate this but is very popular in the US)
Propellardheads Reason and Record
http://www.propellerheads.se/products/
Logic
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/ (Mac only loads of plugins for the money. This will take you down the Mac or Win OS platform debate!)
Traction
http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion3/ (Limited features but good for guitarists may suit you)
Protools
http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...11&ref=pt8-hpb (The alledged professional of the lot - expensive interfaces)
Fruit Loops
http://flstudio.image-line.com/ (It has it's place
)
Peace out