[dvdan]

Wow, huge question...
I love Ableton Live for speed, ideas and their sexy effects. When I want to knuckle down to some serious editing and the like I'm a habitual user of samplitude. A very deep programme, left over from my TV days.
I wish I could use Abletons effects within other DAWs. That would be excellent. On another aside; I wish Propellerhead would release a VST version of their scream distortion unit. I love that thing so much.

I've used Sonar and thats pretty cool to get your head round.

I guess the other question would be do DAWs sound different from each other? Some people swear that their sequencer of choice sounds clearer, deeper, wider etc... But a test a few of us did the other year showed that audio files mixed down from a couple of systems with the same plugins and settings etc cancelled each other out when phased against ech other...

Strange.