1. It's easy to misunderstand the term "sound card" as functionality has changed over time.

Older Windows computers had no audio. The thought was they were considered "business" machines and a "business" machine didn't need audio. To add audio to a Windows computer you installed a "sound card". The "sound card" included connections for line-in, line-out, microphone and headphone. A sound card could also have a "gameport" with additional connections for MIDI IN, MIDI OUT and a joystick controller. Sound cards with a game port generally also had MIDI instrument sounds or patches.

As audio gained popularity Windows computers manufacturers started including or embedding audio functions into the computer motherboard. Motherboard audio systems generally have at least microphone and headphone connections. MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connections and MIDI patches were integrated into the operating system. The term, sound card, morphed into an alternative name for an audio interface.

My guess is you've seen or read people using the terms audio interface and sound card interchangeably.

2. Audio interface manufactures should develop and distribute ASIO drivers. ASIO drivers are normally hardware specific.

ASIO4ALL is a generic wrapper that cloaks another type of Windows driver, WDM, in an ASIO shell. In other words it's a trick. Sometimes the trick works pretty good but many times it don't.

Another driver term you'll come across is a manufacturer will state their product is "Windows Compliant" so a driver is not needed. That means the manufacturer is depending on the drivers Microsoft builds into Windows 10 to work with their product. Here again, sometimes that works but many times it don't. Also, all it takes is for Microsoft to change the built-in driver during an update and everything will go out of whack.

3. Band-in-a-Box and RealBand are said to depend more on CPU speed than RAM. An external audio interface doesn't use any RAM. Soft synths (Kontakt SampleTank, Halion, etc.), VSTs and VSTi and effects can require a lot of RAM.

Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK
DAWs: Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) - Standalone: Zoom MRS-8
Laptop: i3 Win 10, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Desktop: i7 Win 11, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home