Thanks for the response!
I do have an audio interface, but having done some research, I think an output module would certainly help me.
Feel free to tell me to just go reading, but do you have any advice on paring back? I'm having difficulty imagining that I'll enjoy making music with pretty much one voice. I guess there's always the option of building a single voice with a lot of modulation possibilities, and filling in the rest of things in the DAW itself.
I appreciate the reminder to go slow--so long as I get a decent case, I'll always have room to grow