Hi I'm upgrading my computer (studio really) from a laptop to  enthusiast self bit overclocking monster now that I'm close to hitting a threshold in what I can do with my music due to CPU. I'm also building a home studio where I can put my desktop along with my full range fully weighted MIDI keyboard. Getting a practical desktop with the specs I wanted in my budget in a MAC was simply not possible. MACs are expensive while building a super high quality PC was pretty damn cheap for the specs I got, not to mention not I have a versatility of using other programs.

So first off I love and and familiar with LPX (only DAW I've used actually consistently) but I need a different DAW that I could use when on a PC. I mainly use LPX to produce Hip Hop beats and Trip Hop songs, I also was initially trained as a pianist for about 10 years. I understand the best way is to get trials and see what you like but I would love some advice on where to start for my needs. Having grown up on a piano MIDI is important to me since I use it a lot in composing (I'm really excited that I finally have room to make use of my full MIDI keyboard that is the closest MIDI keyboard to a grand piano I've ever played), as well as a lot of sampling (since I use that probably more than anything in hip hop).

The 3 DAWS I'm looking at are Pro tools, Studio One 3 Pro, and Cubase (and I guess Ableton live is an option since I hear good things about it but I honestly know absolutely nothing about it). I already have Pro Tools (I'm still going to school in producing so I got a free copy) but I want to use something that is best for my needs (so something that is an easy transition from LPX would be really nice). I'll probably using PT for mixing regardless after making my songs. Unfortunately most of the comparison threads are pissing contest in which is better. From my understanding Cubase has really good workflow which is important to me cause I mostly compose/produce beats, but Studio One 3 Pro has some really nice new MIDI features which seem nice. PT seems like the best mixer out of all of them which might make it the best for samples after adding plug-ins to it?

Any advice thoughts are appreciated thank you. Also something somewhat comparable with LPX would be nice cause I"ll still probably be using my mac and midi keyboard/turntable setup a lot.

ableton or reason or fruity loops

Yeah I will definitely be doing trials, no interest in wars, just wanted a good place to start. Or maybe an opinion on which is closest to LPX workflow.

assuming LPX is logic pro X...

i'd suggest you test out reason.

logic seems to be more oriented towards manipulating audio stems rather than creating stuff with midi.

reason is pretty good now with creating, but you may have to get use to work flow.

ableton is cool, but again that's a work flow

fruity seems ok to me, but that's also work flow.

but what seems to be more aligned with logic seems to be logic....sorry i can't give more info than that.