Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I advise getting a USB Audio Interface. Tons of choices. How many simultaneous tracks do you want to be able to use at one time? How many mic preamps do you need? What's your budget?
I have a prejudice against Adobe because of their exclusionary/strongarm tactics. Try out Reaper - a full-featured DAW that you can download for free, and pay just $60 to register when you decide you like it.

you could just record midi. you can get a usb midi cable pretty cheap and it gives you the option to change patch later, layer patches, fix your mistakes, use software synths, etc.
downside being that the audio is not actually on your computer... but it's an inexpensive option.

for audio, I'll plug maudio: they've been pretty good to me. I've had a delta since 99' and the fact that it still works good and can accept the latest asio drivers (win 7 too) says a lot about a company.

Not a fan of internal sound cards but here is a pretty good comparison to match with your needs.
http://sound-cards-review.toptenreviews.com/

A quality external USB Audio interface is preferred by most musicians these days. They are compatible across all modern computer platforms and many will run with ASIO drivers if needed.
http://www.americanmusical.com/USB-Audi ... 20--page-2

I use the Tascam US800, too. Have had no issues at all with it (knock on wood), with Win7 and Reaper. Note that the drivers that come with it on disc are useless, go to tascam.com and download the current ones.