Adobe Audition

It is one of the best software's that i have ever worked with for recording purposes. I wouldn't be saying this if i were a mac user or ever used a mac.for windows this is the ideal software for intermediates and higher.It has multiple features and a multitrack environment and it saves every workspace separately. So you can always recover something if you edit it ,that is only if you bother to save the workspace before closing it.The basic format in which it saves is .wav .Though it consumes a lot of space the quality of sound is good.
Options are available in case you would like to save in other audio formats. Even if you do not have a processor or a mixer or even if the environment that you are working in is not very conducive for recording you can still get a good output after proper utilisation of the software. Many tutorials are available online.
The screen is divided into two parts. In one half that is the left one there are multiple options which are subdivided into three major groups:
-real-time effects
-multitrack effects
-process effects
Under process effects there are some really cool features which we can add to make the sound even more attractive,like the stereo field rotate,generate silence,dynamic delay.
in case you are a guitarist and do not have a processor yet want some processed sounds use the real-time effects. You can modify the effects to whatever you want. It has echo,reverb,delay,chorus,flanger,distortion,sweeping phaser,etc.All the basic and some advanced effects are available. Even if you do have a processor this can be used to give a final touch to the sound.
One more feature that is worth mentioning is the metronome. You can set your desired time signature in whatever key you want and record accordingly.The multitrack environment has two main screen blocks , the maina nd the mixer. The main is somewhat a simple and easy to handle screen. The mixer has an EQ setting in which the user is allowed to set their own setting and not just choose amongst some predefined setting.The pan and volume levels are also explicitly set there. There are a few track automation modes also available and are five in number. With each setting we can work differently. For example with the write setting we can record and not with the read. The modes are off,read,write,touch and latch.One last thing about the mixer section is that it has three buttons with M,S,R written on them which are meant for muting the track,playing only that track as in the solo option, and finally the R button which is used to arm the track for recording.
After all the recording is done in different tracks, all the instruments can be summed up and put together in one particular track using either the mixdown to newfile or the bounce to new track feature. Either ways a new file named Mixdown is created with all the tracks in one.
This is just a summary of what Adobe Audition 3.0 is capable of doing.