Trying them all out would be kind of hard for me. Since I don't know how to use them how would trying them out help me decide?
Here we see the bizarre problem of "too much choice". These days we have so many choices that choice itself becomes an issue. Imagine if it were like in the cowboy movies where the guy walks up to the bar and says, "gimme a beer".
Please don't take this the wrong way, because I don't mean this to be as harsh as it will sound, but this is a dumb question.
Asking someone to recommend a DAW to you is dumb because:
1) most people probably haven't EXTENSIVELY used that many
2) everyone is obviously just going to recommend what they themselves use (if they knew there was something better out there, why wouldn't they be using it themselves???)
3) what works for one person may not work for you
For the record, I use Ableton Live, and I think it meets all the requirements you list. Does that mean you should follow my advice though? No. I've never used Sonar, Studio One, Logic, Garageband, Cubase, etc. at all, so for all I know they could be better!
Now I'm not gonna give you to the usual "download demos and try for yourself" advice, because I understand where you are coming from saying this wouldn't help because you don't know how to use them, so my advice will be this:
Start with Reaper. The reason? You have absolutely nothing to lose. The "demo" is fully functional and free. Learn to use it, if you like it, buy it, if not, move on having wasted nothing but some time.
If you don't end up liking Reaper, then you have some knowledge to work with. Then come back to a site like this one and finish this sentence: "I don't like Reaper because..." and someone can point you in the right direction from there, based on specific features you either want or want better.
Hope that helps in some way.
Please don't take this the wrong way, because I don't mean this to be as harsh as it will sound, but this is a dumb question.
Asking someone to recommend a DAW to you is dumb because:
1) most people probably haven't EXTENSIVELY used that many
2) everyone is obviously just going to recommend what they themselves use (if they knew there was something better out there, why wouldn't they be using it themselves???)
3) what works for one person may not work for you
For the record, I use Ableton Live, and I think it meets all the requirements you list. Does that mean you should follow my advice though? No. I've never used Sonar, Studio One, Logic, Garageband, Cubase, etc. at all, so for all I know they could be better!
Now I'm not gonna give you to the usual "download demos and try for yourself" advice, because I understand where you are coming from saying this wouldn't help because you don't know how to use them, so my advice will be this:
Start with Reaper. The reason? You have absolutely nothing to lose. The "demo" is fully functional and free. Learn to use it, if you like it, buy it, if not, move on having wasted nothing but some time.
If you don't end up liking Reaper, then you have some knowledge to work with. Then come back to a site like this one and finish this sentence: "I don't like Reaper because..." and someone can point you in the right direction from there, based on specific features you either want or want better.
Hope that helps in some way.
May i suggest Tracktion by Mackie. It doesn't get a lot of Hype and is not as popular but it is simple and inexpensive.