Re: looking for recording software....whats good?
Cubase/Nuendo, Logic, and ProTools are the main contenders, and all have strong/weak points. Because LE is such a crippled piece of software (that's the extremely truncated version of that story), I can't recommend any PT setup except for HD.
What OS are you using/are most comfortable with? That'll narrow it down, as Logic is OS X only.
Your best bet is to try whatever you can out for a project or two and see which one you 'gel' with the most.