Peripheral Equipment to use with Cool Edit Pro

[munia76]

I've been using Cool Edit as a novice for a couple of years now, making just-for-fun lo-fi recordings with more than satisfactory results, giving recordings of my goofy songs to friends and family and the like. I just use Cool Edit on my PC, and I have a single mic and record one track at a time. My sound card is pretty standard, has an 1/8" mic input, I don't know if that makes any difference.

But now I want to take it one step further. Suppose I wanted to record two different voices at once and give each one it's own track? Or say, what if I wanted 8 different voices at the same time and each gets it's own track?

I realize that I could just get a separate digital or analog recording device and then just dump it straight into Cool Edit. Hmmm...that seems too complicated from an editing perspective. I want it going straight into my computer!

What would I need to get? I want to spend around $500.00, and it doesn't have to be fancy, it can be used, it just has to work and not turn into something that I'll put on a shelf with the intention of repairing one day, but should just throw in the trash. I realize $500.00 might be dreaming, but well, it gives you a perspective of what kind of budget I have. I actually shouldn't even spend $500.00, but well, if I stopped recording because I was poor, I'd go crazy and get fired from my job, and then I'd be even poorer, so well, there's logic for you.

So 4 tracks, 8 tracks. I can't imagine needing much more than 8 at a time, but if it's not going to set me back much, I'd be happy with more. But 8 is a nice number.

Vague? Well, sorry, I only vaguely know what I'm looking for. I've seen thingamagigs that do stuff like this, I just don't know what they're called or where to begin looking for them.