Hello!
You could give Reaper a try! It has an evaluation period, but with unlimited functionality!
The workflow is a breeze, in terms of routing and bussing.
For example, let's say you have 4 guitar tracks and you want to sent them to a Guitars Buss.
You just create a new track by double-clicking, drag it on top of the four tracks, click on the bottom right hand corner of it to turn it to a buss, and then click on the fourth track's bottom right hand corner to indicate where the bussing ends! Total 4 clicks!
Also, when you create a new track(by double clicking), you don't, firstly, have to define what kind of track that would be.
It depends on the Input you set!
For example, let's say you need 2 mono tracks, 1 stereo and a MIDI track.
You, first, create 4 tracks
Then you set each input accordingly, let's say AN1 for the first mono, AN2 for the second, ADAT3/4 for the stereo and USB MIDI for the midi track. Arm them, and you 're good to go! (You can name them, afterwards if you like)
In Pro Tools, you should have hit Shift+Ctrl+N four times, define each one, name them, arm them, and then record.
And what's with the naming with Pro-Tools? You name a track, let's say 'BackingVocalsFemale', and you get 'Bc^%F^*Vls'
Don't even think about naming a track 'BackingVocalsFemaleBuss', you 'll be searching for hours in a 60 tracks project!
In Cubase/Nuendo, I don't know(I haven't used them since version 5.0/3.0)
Some more things are:
1. If you want to have vsts on the Input and print them on real-time, you can have them, visually, on the same track.
When you arm a track, a button named 'Input' appears on the track's GUI, and you can load them there. And these are individual from the vsts you use for your mixing.
Also, you can use unlimited vsts on each track, if you need them! Well, only limited by your PC's power! And by the way, Reaper has a great implementation of multicore functionality(if not the best).
In Pro-Tools you can have 8 plug-Ins per track, render the track if you need more, add 8 more etc.
2. Reaper's GUI is fully customizable! There are tons of themes on the Reaper site! You can, even, have a Pro Tools layout if you like! Or an SSL's console one! Or whatever dark or bright theme you prefer!
Also, shortcuts are fully customizable!
Well, I entered full review mode about Reaper , but I thought it could be useful to you!
There is another alternative of a DAW, if you like traditional consoles' workflow, with VST functionality as well, called "Harrison MixBuss". There are two versions of it!
RME Gear: Digiface USB, HDSP 9632