Welcome to the forum, Kevin.

Yes, you will want to get a firewire or USB external interface, which will be much better quality than the onboard sound card. I happen to like Firewire, but it has to be a Firewire port with Texas Instrument chips or it has been finicky for me. Others will tell you to just get a USB interface, and you will likely have no problems.

I prefer Tascam products to Presonus, but I also know of many poor experiences with Tascam's customer service.

You will like BIAB to compose your songs, but to record more than one audio track, you will move the song into RealBand and use that. RealBand is a sequencer, which is designed to give you mixing capability of each track (and effects on tracks, like reverb).

That's a very fast answer. More detail is available from many of us. Ask your questions, and we'll be there to help, even those of us well over 50!

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.