Ableton Live or other DAWs

[tripp2k]

I've purchased the hardware for my home studio after taking a leap that I would find a cost effective DAW/sequencer. The MIDI keyboard came with Ableton Live 6 Lite and it is much more intuitive than what I thought would be the winner, Reaper.

Line 6 UX2
m-audio Axiom 49
m-audio BX5a

I don't have aspirations of being invited as a session musician to drop my guitar playing into someone else's recording but I would like to be able to ultimately achieve one of my dreams of recording a CD of my work. I don't need to be compatible with anything except being able to ultimately pop out MP3s.

I'm about to drop $500 bucks on a DAW that will do a fine job of recording my guitar, bass and vocals + support sequencing for keys and drums. Please share you experience on whether Ableton Live 7 is the right place to do it or do I have better, more intuitive options for my PC (XP).

Thanks!

[decay-o-caster]

I'm no one's idea of an expert, but I tried Digital Performer (way too complex and frustrating) and some freeware or smaller DAWs (not enough features and versatility) before ending up on Live 6/7 on MacOSX. Which I love - very intuitive, lots of power, lets you concentrate on making music, not learning the interface. I'm using a lot of M-Audio stuff - they seem to provide the best mix between cheap/easy/productive of all the companies out there. And Ableton is the software equivalent, from my experience. Big thumbs up.