So much to go over. I always focus on exactly WHAT do you want to record?

By that I mean will it be live AUDIO like hanging a mic in front of a guitar cab or you singing or will you be playing a MIDI keyboard using midi cables also? I'm describing two types of recording, live remote stuff like recording a rehearsal with your band and strictly recording stuff at home using your computer.

This alone is tricky for a noob to understand. You can play a regular stage keyboard that has midi connectors on it but you're connecting it to the computer using the audio outputs. That raises the question, how to get the audio into your computer? You can use adapters to get a 1/4" jack from your keyboard to the tiny mini line in plug on the back of your computer. If you don't want to mess with that then you need an audio interface.

Midi is a whole other thing. Midi means you're using your keyboard as a midi controller triggering a softsynth that's been installed in your computer. That means you need an audio and midi interface. Not all interfaces have midi such as mixers that double as interfaces. I've not seen any of those that include midi. Latency is not an issue if you're recording audio but it certainly is when you're working with midi. That's when the interface is critical and the ASIO drivers that come with it.

Forget Linux. There's tons of threads about using Linux as the OS for a home studio. It's so limited that it's barely worth it. That takes us to the next question. PC or Mac and which version of those OS's will you be using?

You need to tell us these things before we begin to talk about what stuff you need to pick up.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.