yea I mastered my last few records in it because the mastering workflow is fantastic. But that was all I had done in it up until recently. I have been kinda going through DAW hell as of late because I do almost everything in Reason with Pro tools on the side, and I love Reason but for the type of production jobs I find myself getting I am hitting a wall with it, mainly because of the video features I need and I need better orchestral sounds, these are Reasons two biggest weaknesses in my opinion. I LOVE the Reason workflow so much but I am getting so many jobs these days that need to sync to video, and there are more and more plugins that temp me away. My main DAW wish list is as follows (notice I said wishlist, I will probably have to compromise something)
cross platform
no dongle
layered editing
great midi sequencer
video support
Ableton live is close, but its still so unstable even in V9. No layered editing and I personally still find the sequencer a bit annoying although as a whole Live is amazing.
Pro tools is close, but needs a dongle and AVID has just totally went of the rails as of late. I want a nimble production environment and PT is NOT IT. Although I will probably keep it around because I still get the odd Pro tools session sent to me from time to time to mix.
Bitwig is also amazing, but NO VIDEO SUPPORT and only an OK sequencer.
Cubase is great but the UI is horrible and requires a dongle.
Logic and Sonar are both fantastic but not cross platform.
That leaves Digital Performer and Studio One that meet every one of my criteria. I had moved from mastering in Samplitude to Studio One already but doing actual production in Studio one V2 was great, however it still didnt grab me like Reason or Live does. SOO I have been playing with Studio One V3 all night and HOLY CRAP. It somehow manages to walk the line between creative (Like Live, Reason, FL) and an engineering tool (Pro tools, Samplitude) The sequencer is still not as good as say Cubase (Cubase has the best raw sequencer on the planet too bad their UI design is stuck in the 90's, steinberg needs to take a look a Sonars Skylight interface) but holy shit the Studio one workflow is wicked fast, I would say faster than even Ableton Live. There are so many great details that they just got right. It really is a remarkable product. I still haven't decide what one I will go to as my main rig for orchestral composing, but at this point I am STRONGLY leaning to Studio One. Oh and Digital Performer is also very amazing, but I just cant get the hang of the darn thing.