As others have said, this is a very individual decision. for me, I absolutely need staff or notation, it's how I compose and edit, orchestrate etc. So that rules out a bunch of DAWS right off the bat, like Studio One or Ableton. Even Cubase does not allow me to have the workflow I need, because you can only select a sequence of notes in the current view; it will not scroll to the right when you hit the edge. This is why it is paramount to demo. Think about how you work. No, you can't expect the exact same workflow, but you want to get as close as possible. This will help you narrow things down to something that will do what you need. For me, it's Reaper. They have a great notation feature, as well as an event list identical to sonar. Although, I'm currently back to working in Sonar, to compare the two. I may stay with Sonar (8.5 Studio) as long as possible, and eventually move to Reaper, or decide that Reaper is better now. Lot's of decisions, and lots of factors to consider!