I never tried ableton. Cubase was always an easy choice for me since it seems sort of like an industry standard over here; almost every studio I've been to has ran Cubase either on Mac or Windows platform.

The only others I've used are Logic Audio, Magix and Samplitude studio. They are all very very similar. Also much like Cubase. Learn one and you can pretty much use any. Ah, Adobe Audition! That's a pretty good one, and very affordable. It's not far from Cubase interface either, maybe a bit more text and clutter but it's also quite good.

The guys in my 'American' band, Project-43, use Audition.