How would you compare the learning curve on Ardor to a program like Audacity?
I used to use Audacity on Ubuntu, but that computer had a motherboard problem. When I replaced the motherboard, I put windows 10 on it. I still use Audacity, mostly because it's free. Of course, it has limited usefulness, you can't use VSTs with it, at least not that I've found, so I've been think about moving to a better DAW.
I have done some projects with Audacity. I think of it more as an audio editor with recording capabilities. You can use Ardour in similar ways with the potential to do a lot more. There are some good tutorials out there to get you started. The first obstacle is getting your interface working with Jack, but you may find someone with the same hardware who has experience. You can get the free demo version of Ardour to try it out.
As long as it works with a USB audio interface, I should be able to figure out how to use the program. I have a Focusrite audio interface for inputting my audio sources such as the microphone and instruments.
Hope it works for you. You can try a live Linux boot to play with some of the software, but things should work on Windows too. I've just not done much audio stuff in Windows.