Some people find Audacity to be easier to use than a full-fledged DAW, but I always thought that to be odd since Audacity's interface looks pretty much like a full-fledged DAW's does. To me, it seems like a full-fledged DAW is the obvious way to go, although I suppose the fact that Audacity won't let you record MIDI could be a help in terms of not allowing you to confuse yourself by recording MIDI when you actually wanted to record audio.
As far as Audacity, be sure to get it from the official Audacity site, rather than from the SourceForge site, because Audacity's dev team moved everything off of SourceForge due to what I guess were differences of opinion about some of SourceForge's practices, but SourceForge restored the Audacity code from backups and refused to delete it-- presumably because Audacity was one of SourceForge's most-downloaded projects ever, and SourceForge did not want to lose that traffic from their site, although SourceForge apparently claims that the reason is so people won't get confused if they can't find Audacity at SourceForge anymore. Anyway, the version that SourceForge has refused to permanently delete is an old one, so if you want the newest version then you need to download it from the official Audacity site.
NCH Software has a few programs for recording and editing audio that you may also wish to check out-- if you're wanting to avoid a full-fledged DAW for the time being, that is. NCH usually offers basic versions of their programs for free, then encourages you to purchase the more feature-rich versions to gain access to all of their features. I'm rather fond of WavePad, which I found a few years back while looking for software to edit some audio recordings I'd made, before I ever heard of Audacity. I even bought the "master" version of WavePad because I really liked its FFT or Fast Fourier Transform features so much; I prefer WavePad's FFT displays over some of the other ones I've seen in free FFT plugins for DAWs.
If you want to just bite the bullet and go straight to a full-fledged DAW solution-- which I highly recommend, so you don't run into the situation of having to face two different learning curves, first for learning to use a basic audio recording program, and later for learning to use a full-fledged DAW-- then there are a lot of DAWs to choose from. The topic of which DAW to choose tends to come up over and over again, both here and in other forums, so you might want to search different forums (including this one, of course) for topics related to choosing a DAW.
My own feeling is that it's a lot like choosing which car to get, meaning it's difficult to know which car is going to get your "juices" pumping and make you fall in love with it, so it can be somewhat pointless to ask other people which DAW they think you should get because they might be turned on by the things that turn you off, and vice versa. It's best to just look at them yourself, try to make a short list of the ones that strike your fancy the most, and then take each one for a test spin to see if you can figure out which one "speaks" to you the loudest and clearest, as it were.
Of course, it can be helpful to ask people what they like or dislike about a particular DAW, because they may have some experience and insight into certain strengths or weaknesses that you might not be aware of-- but a feature, or lack of same, that rubs them the right or wrong way might have zero importance to you, so don't feel like you need to base your decision on other people's opinions.
Fortunately, most commercial DAWs have free trials available, and some even have free versions available, which makes it easy to check out different DAWs without having to invest any money into them, so you can compare the ones you're most interested in before deciding to fork over any funds.
By the way, I should explain what I mean by "full-fledged" DAW. A DAW is a program that lets you use a computer as a "digital audio workstation." DAWs have a number of different functions that they can perform, with the most basic ones being (1) recording and editing audio tracks and (2) recording and editing MIDI tracks. But DAWs have other functions which are important in connection with those two core functions, yet which can also be extremely useful in their own right-- that is, they can be used even if you aren't recording and editing tracks. In particular, a DAW can be used for routing audio or MIDI data streams between two or more devices or programs; for hosting plugins and playing virtual instruments (often called "VSTs," although VST is actually just one plugin format and there are several orher formats); and for controlling audio or MIDI devices or programs by sending messages to them, such as for "automatically" switching to a different sound on your keyboard while you're playing.
So part of the reason why I think it's better to jump straight into the world of DAWs instead of spending time with audio-only programs is because full-fledged DAWs are so much more useful. But this also means it's a good idea to sit back and take your time before choosing a specific DAW, because you'll want to ask yourself what functions you're especially interested in. Even though most DAWs offer more or less the same types of functions, they can vary a good bit as to how those functions are laid out in their menu system and on their screens, which can make a big difference in how simple or complex a given function is to actually use. If you know which functions are most important to you, you can focus on trying out those specific functions to see which DAWs will most easily and most sufficiently serve your needs and wants.
