I use Acid Pro 6 - very easy to use and learn on and able to produce professional results. It supports Midi,VST's(i record my guitars through amplitube in real time with no problems),5.1 surround mixing etc etc.... Its the best music proggie around imho.
I once tried a demo of cubase but I found that absolutely, totally and utterly confusing
If you wanna go the free route, Audacity will do the job adequetely and there are plenty of users around to get tips from.
Ooops, nearly forgot to mention Asio4all a free Asio wrapper that makes latency a thing of the past
