Sound/Audio editing & mixing software?

Looking for software for a Win XP machine that will allow recording and mixing of multiple tracks and editing of tracks ripped from CDs. Specifically, would like to be able to equalize frequencies and sound levels among different files for making mix CDs as well as do a little multi-track recording and mixing.

Is there any software out there that can copy tracks directly from a CD to a file on the hard drive without converting to MP3 or another compressed format?

The machine is a little old but has tons of disk space and a brand new 52x CD/DVD burner. Hoping to find a decent shareware or freeware app. Anyone have experience with such a beast? Google searching for freeware/shareware apps has turned up lots of options so would like to know if anyone has any experience with a particular app to save time downloading and trying a bunch of different ones.

For ripping cd's I would suggest using EAC it allows you to set whatever file format u want.. ie. wav, mp3, flac, monkeys audio, shorten...as far as editing goes I'm not sure of good freeware around I've always cheated...

hmmm...

freeware: audacity is decent. as many tracks as your cpu can support. decent* editing capabilities, built in effects and free.

basic: acid, basically the same thing as audacity but not free

and then there is protools.