Racer, I have a couple of answers for you, but before I launch into them I have a question. Why do you want to record WAVE files? If you (say) wanted to play a particular MIDI file on your car stereo to learn a fiddle tune (or a choral part) then a simple answer is to connect a cassette recorder to the output of your sound card and press RECORD on your cassette before you start playing the MIDI on your PC. Maybe this is a simple solution for you.

I can't answer your question about Cakewalk - there are just too many versions around with various degrees of disability.

You can download Total Recorder at http://hotfiles.zdnet.com/cgi-bin/texis/swlib/hotfiles/info.html?fcode=000WEB. The shareware version will only let you record 40 seconds of WAVE and costs (from memory) $11.95. I haven't used this part of the program yet. I first took an interest when I read that you can use it to store complete live Real Audio shows to your own hard disc.

Wingroove at http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/8464/ is quite different. It provides somewhat more realistic instrument sounds than the cheaper sound cards provide AND lets you record WAVE files from MIDI files at varying degrees of fidelity. CD quality in stereo probably chews up about 5 Megs per minute - by sacrifising quality this probably comes down to something like 1 Meg/minute (I'm guessing). It costs $20 after the 30 day trial period - the program is virtually useless after this time, but it gives you a fair amount of time to play with it. I paid 10 times that amount for my Yamaha wave table daughter board, but I can't get the B***** thing to work in my latest PC. Wingroove is a fair substitute for a better cound card if you have a P133 or better.

Hope that this helps. Regards, John