To answer beachbum's question: if you already have a CDR in your computer then get Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. It'll do everything you need. All the thing that Tapas mentioned that he does with the Alesis Masterlink, Sound Forge does and much more for way less money than any hardware processor. It makes editing audio and doing common things like clean fades very easy, plus it is a CD burning program - it will tell you how much time is remaining on your CDR and offer the options you need for closing the finished CD so it'll play on any CD player. And it'll create MP3 files from your wave files, which you'll be wanting when you get your wifey an MP3 player.