I would come down on the side of a laptop with a Sequencer - there are many available even free - try KVR. The advantages of a computer based suystem is it grows with you, a tascam just gets binned when it can cope. I bought a digital workstation as my first system, I went back and bought Cubase tghe next week and I did not make a mistake. You might want ti start with a simple free sequencer and a decnet sound card with enough ins and outs, if you want to record multiple ins at the same time you need individual inputs -p line or mic levels. I supposew you can mix a bit on the tascam but it would not be easy

Win 11 64, Asus Rog Strix z390 mobo, 64 gig RAM, 8700k