I've used Ulead Video Studio. It's simple, straight forward and pretty stable. I don't remember how sophistocated its audio tracks are, but I do remember it doing two tracks -- synch sound and wild sound (to use OLD film terms). As for a cheap alternative to Premiere, Premiere LE came bundled on my laptop; I use it a lot. I know you can get it bundled with video cards and such. I'm not sure if you can just buy LE outright, though.... I hope this helps. Happy New Year!