Fran, what about REAPER? It is priced similarly, used by a lot of 'Pros' including some former Pro Tools users, and contains a gazillion effects. It's a little weak in the Midi area (but getting better with each update) but really kicks butt in the audio area. It's easy to use but you'd need some decent engineering skills to fully utilize all of it's features. If you're familiar with it, how do the two match up?
chas
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"Faith means not wanting to know what is true." [Nietzsche]