I didn't know you felt so strongly about my conversation with ovalf

In the interest of tipping things back toward productive conversation, one could make the argument that UI and workflow are very closely related. Especially when it comes to learning the software. Despite being fundamentally different from every other daw that was out at the time (pre-Bitwig), Ableton had possibly the shallowest learning curve for me. A big part of that was the minimalism in UI and naming conventions. A no-nonsense zero-fluff interface that has only important stuff and (while this isn't necessarily interface) stock plugins named after what they do was big for me as a beginner.

 

If you decide to go Reaper route, consider this tutorial a must

 

You can classify and organize your plugins the way you want with the browser..

 

for me, it's reaper. the more i use it, the more i get into customisations etc, the more i am beginning to really love it. i believe it is the best 'all-rounder' out there and the one with most possibilities.

 

i believe you can customise that stuff..
but i agree it is very utilitarian naked lightbulb type interface in parts...
there are also some ace skins for it which softens it up a little : )