I use Fruity Loops 5 for all my vst pluggins and Magix for recording. I'm not sure how Pro Tools or the others work but that's what works for me and it didn't set me back a house payment. ;)
I should mention I got Fruity Loops 5 producer edition free. Magix only cost 80 bucks and does a nice job for me at the moment. I'm not looking to upgrade for a while.