Bear in mind you probably need an audio interface, your computers sound card can do it but quality is not great and the noise floor is lousy, try looking on ebay for a seasound unit the company is not in business any more but you'll get a high quality recording unit and a limited Cubase is thrown in too, or try a Lexicon core2 I think that comes with Cool Edit Pro. The sound problems your having can have alot to do with that.
also, mess with the mid's, hi's, and lows on the program itself. Cause im pretty sure, that the singal is distorted when going into the comp due to many elements.
If im not mistaken there's also a free 8 track version of "Pro Tools" available from http://www.digidesign.com , if your interested. It does require a fairly industrious machine to run properly.
*Nuendo is another good computer program.*
