Pro tools 10 or Cubase 6?

[Asrial]

This is more of a buyers question rather than a users question and I haven't found any good comparison between the two that clarified anything.

So far, I'm using Reaper for minor recordings, but I have little to no other option than guitar or bass on it, and I can't find any additional VSTs of an okay quality to go along with it, so it's time to pay for what's in my eyes great editing tools.

Now, I have no idea or bias about the pro tools at all, so I'm blank, but I got a relatively good clue about what Cubase 6 can do, which I also can order with the Halion 4.

My main concerns is the quality of the virtual cabs and effects, and virtual instruments, how versatile the software is along with how efficient and easy-to-use it is.
Also, I got a Steinberg CI2 as my recording interface, which I know is fully compatible and already mapped to Cubase interfaces.
And just to add; what's the difference between the full suite and the artist version of Cubase 6?
There is an okay price difference between the programs:
(250€) Cubase 6 artist < Cubase 6 < Pro tools 10 < Cubase 6 + HAL 4 (700€)
In terms of pricing, it's nearly tripling the price from artist to full+HAL, and

So TL;DR: Pro tools 10 or Cubase 6 (/artist), is HAL 4 worth considering with Cubase, or am I completely wrong?

[EtherealEntity]

Difference between versions of Cubase I don't know but there should be a comparisons chart somewhere out there.

Quality of virtual cabs and effects...I don't know if either software includes cab modelling. Protools doesn't (aside from the Elevenrack demo which isn't very good). Stick to Impulse Responses (see the sticky).

Effects...Stock plugins are all pretty standard. The ones that come with any software will get the job done, but it's not a bad idea to pay out for some commercial plugins such as those by Stillwell. Waves are nice but expensive and I don't like to crack software.

Protools doesn't support VST plugins by the way, which is a huge thing in my opinion. However there is a cheap wrapper you can buy to load the VSTs in it - but I don't know if that's been updated for PT10 yet.

My opinion on Protools which is also shared by many others - if you have to ask, it's not for you. It is the industry standard and offers lots of very cool features but they aren't really important outside of a pro studio. And even then, you can get by without them. There's downsides which just aren't worth the trade off in my opinion, unless you actually know you want/need PT for X reason. Note that I am a fairly experienced PT user and this is not just a standard PT sucks rant.

[KingAenarion]

Have a look at Presonus Studio One.

I own ProTools 10 and Cubase 5 and as a musician (and in some parts as an engineer) it blows them both out of the water for music creation.

It's got great effects, comes with some really sexy virtual instruments. The amp modelling is suprisingly good (and is even set up to let you load your own VSTs.

I have the Pro version and it does most things that Pro Tools and Cubase does, except for Video Post Production and a few things like having a score editor.

Have a look at it.

[Menigguh]

Cubase all the way.

If you aren't that familiar with DAWs try out Presonus Studio One

Very easy drag drop operation

[Asrial]

I am leaning heavily towards buying Cubase 6 + Halion 4, which I also can order the next time I'm buying strings and such.
I've mostly gotten the best impression on Cubase 6, but since I'm ordering early january at earliest though, there's still time.