@lettuce
Thanks for the detailed reply. I fully understand your position and getting bang for your buck is important. I’ve certainly shopped around myself to maximise what I get for the little I wanted to pay. That’s one of the reasons why Renoise was so compelling to me when I purchased it and then later Redux. Additionally, though not relevant to you perhaps, is that I grew up with trackers and my only operating system nowadays is Linux and that narrows my options to some degree when it comes to standout DAWs.
My suspicion is that being productive solely from a tablet while on the go will be a little difficult but I may be wrong about that. I see tablets as a way to more so compliment a traditional DAW set-up rather than replace it. Others will have a better ground opinion on this I think though.
Though I love love love Renoise, it does have some shortcomings that have made me shop around for other DAW software - mainly because I’ve started working more with vocals over the last year. I’ve settled in Tacktion Waveform 9 which is about $100 and it does all the things that those big $300, $500 & $800 DAWs do. It’s cross-platform too so I get to keep my Linux OS. For me personally, its workflow and GUI makes a hell of a lot more sense than Reaper. Waveform is $109 and other than Renoise, it’s the best money I’ve spent on audio production software.
But like others are saying, give Reaper a whirl. Actually, even Harrison Mixbus might be an option and its inexpensive too.