In 1996, Jedi Rich built his first DAW studio in Oakland, California located on Rich Street off Telegraph/42nd Ave. And there were three members of the band named "Rich".  It was an experimental studio, built in a detached garage, but it worked and it was portable (barely). The skills he learned building that DAW are the same needed today in non-linear non-destructive recording. In fact, you need to know much less today to build and record with a DAW under normal circumstances.