I think that your choice has to do with not only how you work but also what you work with. I have been evaluating Reaper and Cakewalk by BandLab for about 6 weeks now. I work mostly in MIDI and find that Cakewalk to be a bit easier to setup and use.

Cakewalk started out as MIDI only many years ago and still retains many of its MIDI work flows. On the other hand, Reaper is used by many here on the forums and is constantly being updated with features. Typical of any DAW's, both are complex and require months of learning.

If you're just starting out, try RealBand that comes free with BIAB. It has many special features that help to integrate it with BIAB and serves as a base for many here prior to moving over to more complex DAW's.

Win11, Intel i7 7700K 4.2Ghz, 32Gb RAM, 2x1Tb HD, 500Gb NVMe, BIAB/RB 2025, MOTU 828MK3 audio, MOTU Midi Express, Yamaha Montage 7, DX7II, TX802, Motif XS Rack, Roland Fantom XR Rack, Oberheim Matrix 1000, VoiceLive3 Extreme, Kontakt 6, SampleTank 4.3