@fireh9lly FL Studio is the DAW i use
pros: it has support for some live performance stuff; once you buy it you have lifetime free updates; i find it very nice to use in general
cons: hard to change tempo precisely with automation; it's literally the only professional daw i've ever used so idk how it actually stacks up for live stuff
keyboards and midi controllers are also good investments obvi, but i haven't used many of them
@fireh9lly (really though, it's hard to express how nice [for me at least] the lifetime free updates thing is. lots of daws only give you free updates til the next major version or something)
@typhlosion @fireh9lly In terms of VSTs if you have A Lot A Lot Of Money then Komplete 11 is probably gonna be like "Oh now I have all the acoustic VSTs I'll prolly ever need, ok".
I have no experience with Native Instruments stuff tho, I went with Garritan Personal Orchestra + World Instruments, which is a cheaper-but-good alternative to Native Instruments stuff (for my needs, anyway, idk how nicely either play with Reaper also, so check that first)
@fireh9lly or if you meant vsts, uh... uhhhh...... i heard serum is good?? i tend to just use free stuff oh no i'm not helping