I believe anieyo is right Martin, for your needs at the moment. Start with a programme (yeh I'm British) that is made for BIAB. Apart from it being an excellent starter DAW the forums are excellent as advice is always available.

I believe many of the contributors use Real Band or Power Tracks for their recordings and then eventually move on to different DAWs. I use Cubase SX1 myself as I got a freebie years back with my 1st PC and upgraded for a while, as I understood it.

Use BIAB and RealTracks/PowerTracks to write and record your songs then move on if you want to, to Reaper etc.

I had a 1680 which was great for recording live bands but mixing was very hard with the little screen and the sub-sub-sub menus. I actually swapped it for a good PC, many many years ago, best thing I ever done Apart from adding computer gear to my addiction for new musical stuff

Alyn