Dave,
I waited to see if anyone would offer some ideas in response to your post, and nobody did, so I will, by talking about fishing. I fly fish, and if a buddy said he wanted to go fishing to have fun and relax, I'd tell him any basic rod, reel, line, hooks, and bait will do the job (just add water, right?). I wouldn't load him down with a lot of expensive gear. But if he said he wanted to go fly fishing to have fun and relax, things change: I'd give him a lot more detail and tell him he needs specialized gear and that there's a steep learning curve that never ends, but it's always fun.
And "hobbyist" covers the full range of what I'm talking about: some people do their hobby casually, some obsessively, but for basically the same purpose (have fun and relax). And as for whether fishing is more fun with a handcrafted fly rod than with a cane pole, I'd say, no, it's just *different fun*.
The folks in this forum know their stuff, and they are hugely helpful. Many of them are hobbyists too, and many of them do this professionally. But this thread is geared toward those of us who are obsessive - the programs all are "great deals" for us, but there's a steep learning curve in each, and most of us wouldn't suggest you leap into one of these unless your plan is to become as obsessive as we are about what we do.
But my point would be, from what you wrote, there are any number of basic interfaces that come with the software you need to do what you want to do...and for about the same cost as one of these programs (without an interface). My guess is that any one of these would be a better fit for you than the programs listed in the original post.
And just so you know, somewhere around here, I have a Line 6 Guitar Port and a disc for an old version of Sonar. And I had a lot of fun with it until I decided I *needed* a whole bunch more stuff, like the features in the programs listed here. But a newer interface with updated software will certainly do a better job for you than your old setup.
Mostly, this should be fun, right?