Jedi.
I have not tryed digital performer, the price was too steep for me. I tryed cubase for a while, but did not have much luck with it. The learning curve was so steep, by the time I got it to work I was so mad that I could not record anything.
Metro 5 is fairly simple, but then again I've messed with it so much I'm use to it. Remembering back, seemed I had a pretty tough time with it also (don't like reading manuals).
Basicaly metro 5 has 64 track audio recording tracks. With 192 megs of ram I can go about 10 tracks of 4 min. recordings. It uses vst plugins for effects. I don't use the effects much as I try to get the best recoded sound to start off with. As an audio recorder I am extreemly satisfied.
It will do up to 99 tracks midi with up to 32 sections per song file. I'm not real familiar with this portion of the program as my midi interface really bites. Anyway it will turn midi tracks into notation.
I have had no problems with file conversions, yet.
Yes, I heard about the price hike. They stated that the prices of flatscreens and memory has skyrocketed. It don't matter much to me, I prefer macs.
Anyway........ a good place for mac users to find info about recording and such is www.macmusic.org
You might scan the posts there and find some answers you're looking for.