Any DAW can probably accomplish the same thing …you’ll see a lot of people swear by certain programs but similar to virtual DJ software those comments are more opinion based more on preference. End of a day your songwriting ability & production skills far outweigh the importance of the DAW you use.
As far as understanding how synths work I’d recommend looping a piece of music & then open the VST and fiddle. You’ll start to see what certain knobs & features do & how it alters the sound. I doubt your Mixtrack is going to help for production so you’ll probably need to get familiar with the piano roll feature unless you can get your hands on a MIDI instrument. Also just keep reading forums, watching Youtube videos, etc. I’ve been producing far longer than DJ’ing and I still invest a good chunk of time trying to learn how to do certain things. Production takes a lot of time & patience. Look at most popular producer/DJ’s ….sure there’s an occasional youngster like Avicii or Afrojack but most of the pros are in there 30’s and 40’s because it simply takes years to start producing good stuff.