reaper

Since the sys admin doesn't let me install progs at work I'm messing with reaper nowadays. It runs of USB stick without installing. I think it is unbelievable that they can pack this functionality together with a demo song in 2.5 mb installer. It has some realy nice features like ripple editing etc

REAPER is a powerful Windows application for multitrack recording and editing of audio.

* Portable - supports running from USB keys or other removable media
* 64 bit audio engine
* Excellent low-latency performance
* Multiprocessor capable
* Direct multi-track recording to many formats including WAV/BWF/W64, AIFF, WavPack, FLAC, OGG, and MIDI.
* Extremely flexible routing
* Fast, tool-less editing
* Supports a wide range of hardware (nearly any audio interface, outboard hardware, many control surfaces)
* Support for VST, VSTi, DX, DXi effects
* ReaPlugs: high quality 64 bit effect suite
* Tightly coded - installer is just over 2MB
* more features...
* technical specifications... 

REAPER is reasonably priced, sustainably developed, uncrippled unexpiring shareware. 
http://reaper.fm/