On Macs, I've used Cubase LE, to record MIDI and audio; Reason, to
record MIDI; and Ableton Live to record MIDI and audio. All were fine.
My favorite is Ableton Live, though it's not quite a DAW in the sense
that it doesn't offer fine control over editing audio. Audacity,
however, does offer that, and is a perfect complement to Ableton Live.
Having both, I need no other.

> J> 3. .... perhaps Progression filters out the ghost notes
> automatically
> J> due to the setting.

Cubase LE and Ableton Live definitely offer the ability to filter
incoming MIDI by velocity or pitch. That's how filtering "ghost notes"
is done, AFAIK, whether live or recording. Maybe Reason does it, too,
but I don't know. Other MIDI/audio programs like Logic can do this, I
feel certain, but haven't used them.

You can filter out, say, any notes with a really low velocity... and/
or filter notes that are above and below a given MIDI note. I've seen
a good article on that in the past, probably in Guitar Player or
Electronic Musician magazines, maybe in that wonderful British
magazine called Computer Music (the UK has some awesome magazines).

Cubase LE came free with 2 different audio/midi interfaces I purchased
over the years. It's hard to learn how to use (or I should say, it's
got a crowded, busy interface), but it is really good stuff -- lots of
control, plenty of power. I still keep it around and have used it for
editing voice tracks for an animated cartoon series, as well as for
music.

--mooncaine