I realized I was using Cubase as an empty shell, a place to run plugins.
Reaper does it as well, or even better. You can route anything to anywhere.
I got tired of 4.7Gb installations. Reaper is like a 4mb zip file, and you can make it portable, running from a small usb drive.
I can teach and give it to interested people, with a nice collection of free plugins that are so common now on the web. And it's included plugins are really powerful.

But remember, you can use it without any restriction, but it's not really free, if it becomes an important tool you should pay the small amount they ask for it (I did, and I feel fine).

I love small, cheap, good and non-intrusive software.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Tried it on 5 or 6 different computers, no problems at all.
With QuataFire 610, FastTrackPro, IndigoDJ or Asio4all, always perfect!!!
It is skinable, and it adapts to big or small screens, even on mini laptops.

OVERALL OPINION

As good as the big expensive sequencers, but small, portable, big user base and constantly updated.
I can use it as my main audio sequencer.