I'm a little confused with the importance of the sound card in BiaB and in general with home audio stuff.
My XP desktop uses the default, cheap integrated internal soundcard (Soundmax) and the output synth is simply the "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth" in BiaB. The 2 PCI slots (I know, already dated technology) are currently in use, so if I purchased a new sound card, it would need to be external.
Should I consider an audio interface like the M-Audio Fast Track Pro/Tascam, etc. so I can record my instrument into BiaB? I notice that the Fast Track Pro is also a "sound card". But what about the GM sounds that are attributes of the card - does an interface like the M-Audio come with that?
If I am using an audio interface like the Fast Track Pro, does then the quality of the sound card still matter?
If I did have a PCI slot available, it seems the "traditional" internal M-Audio 2496 soundcard would also function as both an interface (2 audio and midi inputs) and a sound card at the same time.
As you can read I am confused just trying to sort this out, especially the relationship between "audio interfaces" and "sound cards"!

WinXP Pro / BiaB 2010 / Fast Track Pro / Ketron SD2