I bought Cakewalk (v2.1) years ago when the only choices of midi sequencer (no DAW’s then) were that, Cubase and Emagic Notator (Logic). I used, and still do from time to time, what is now Adobe Audition for audio editing (then called ‘Cool Edit’)
Because I had a lot of hardware, I used the excellent SoundQuest MidiQuest as a librarian and editor.
I then move to Live, and have stayed with that as my preferred choice.
Current and past gear (too much to list here) at http://www.alphabase.co.uk/music-gear-old-and-new/