In this article I'll specify the underlying concepts that are used to create music with a computer, so that you can make music on any computer.
daw
A daw is a digital audio workstation, before that makes any sense at all you have to know what an audio workstation is in the first place.
An audio workstation is a collection of tools that make it possible to record audio over time. To fully understand the progression of the audio workstation we should at least have some understanding of what brought us to this point, by reading the history of sound recording.
A DAW's goal in general is to be able to record, edit and modify audio over time. It takes inspiration from a mixer, a mixer or mixing console is a physical device that takes audio inputs, allows you to modify any of these signals and then sums them together to create one output signal this is the recording component of a DAW.
A daw allows you to use many different sources as inputs to a channel, such as a microphone, or a midi instrument that's going through a vst