Actually, I've done that.
When I first ventured into digital recording, I was moved to do so when I attended a demo of Logic and the ISIS sound card. This was mid-nineties, and I barely knew about the internet then.
I was impressed by the demo, and decided that's what I wanted to get. Which is what I did.
I did RTFM, but it didn't help much, and had great difficulty getting set up. I think I worked out midi ok, but it took ages to work out how to get it stable: optimising the PC (which isn't in the manual), working out the right drivers and so on. I think it took around two months to record audio successfully.
I wouldn't have minded knowing about HR then.