i've been using audacity for a few months. which port are you running, windows or linux?
it's a fairly straight forward package. simple in looks and simple to use. there a number of effects to play with, but this is a bare bones editor. so it's not going to have all the bells and whistles of cakewalk or magix or band-in-a-box. plus, its GPL, as in free ... as in use it!
NOTE::::: be aware, the program is free from
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ . it's not shareware or adware. this is a true GPL licensed project being developed for the recording community. there are some "unscrupulous people" who have hijacked audacity and selling it on ebay ...... do not patronize these ebay "users". rather, donate a few bucks to the people who are actually creating the program.
i have personally forsaken the glitzy editor/studios for Audacity because of it's simpilicity. it has excellent recording abilities, time slider, multi-track and if you back it up with a small console and something like a Line6 Pod, you don't need all that glitz!
i highly recommend signing up for the Audacity devel mail list. there is a lot more going on than i can tell you about it.
good luck
les