Step 1
The vast majority of sound cards that come on computers today have three 1/8" (miniplug) jacks on the back, plus a plug for attaching MIDI equipment. Plug in the speaker's cable to your sound card's Line Out port. If your speakers do not have a miniplug connector, you may need an adapter.

Step 2
If you want to record from your microphone, connect its cable to your sound card's Mic In port. (If your microphone does not have a miniplug connector, see the Recording and Mixing Audio topic for how to use a mixer or microphone pre-amp)

Step 3
If you want to record from another source, such as your tape player or keyboard, attach its cable to your sound card's Line In port. You will probably need an RCA to miniplug adapter in order to attach a stereo component (such as your CD player) to your sound card. You can buy this adapter at your local electronics store.

Step 4
In Windows, open up your sound card's mixer panel by double-clicking on the yellow speaker icon in your system tray, near the clock on your task bar. If you do not have the yellow speaker icon in your system tray, you can make it appear by going to the Start Menu, selecting Settings, then, Control Panel, and then Multimedia. Make sure that Show volume control on the taskbar is checked, then click OK. Some sound cards provide their own mixer control panel, and so their icon may be different. If you have such a sound card, refer to its documentation on how to finish steps 4-6.

Step 5
The standard sound card mixer looks like the figure in "Visual Aids - Step 5". When you first open the mixer, you will see all of the possible playback volumes. Make sure that wave is NOT muted, and that its volume slider and the master volume slider are both at least halfway up.

Step 6
Set the sound card's recording devices by going to Options->Properties, selecting Recording, and clicking OK. Each of the devices your sound card can record from will be listed here. If you want to record from the Microphone, select it and make sure the volume is at least half way up. If you are recording from some other device plugged into your Line In, select Line and make sure its volume slider is at least halfway up.

Step 7
Launch Cool Edit 2000 or Cool Edit Pro. In Cool Edit, go to Options, select Settings, and then click on the Devices tab. Make sure that your sound card is selected for both Waveform Playback and Waveform Record.

Step 8
Test your recording levels with Cool Edit's VU meters. Double-click on the VU meters to turn them on, and then either test your microphone or play something into the line-in, depending on what you wanted to record. Use the recording control panel from step 6 to adjust the levels until the VU meters peak out around -2 or -3 dB. Double-click on the VU meters to turn them off.

Step 9
Create a new file by going to File->New. Choose your file type, and click ok. Click here for tips on choosing file types.

Step 10
Click the record button and record away! When you are done recording, click Stop.

Step 11
Edit your file and apply any effects.

Step 12
Save your file in your desired format. Go to File->Save As, name your file, and then select the format from the format list. To create an MP3 file, simply select MP3 from the list and then click Options to set bit rate and other options.

How-To Tips
 
Tip 1
When you are editing a file, make sure that you have at least three times the file's size in space before you start. For instance, CD quality sound (44,100 samples/second, 16-bit, stereo) takes about 10 Megabytes per minute. If you want to record and edit a 4 minute file, you will want 10x4x3=120 MB of free space before you start.

Tip 2
Once you've saved a sound, you can make it into a system sound by using the Sounds control panel under Start->Settings->Control Panel.

Tip 3
If you are going to burn the audio to CD, make sure that it is 44,100 samples per second, 16-bit and stereo. Also make sure that the Save Extra non-audio information box is NOT checked in the Save As dialog when you save the file.