I dont know the fancy terms, but it displays the audio tracks (which you will be burning on to a cd) and allows to shift them and make fades and re position the track breaks so you can bring in a new track as the last one is fading out, where as before they may have been completely seperate. Ive only used the software once.. I hope Im making sense
I'm not positive on this, but I believe Sony still has trial versions available on their website. I know that Sonic Foundry used to anyway (Sonic Foundry being the original company that produced CD Architect, Sound Forge, Vegas, and Acid Pro, amongst other titles, before being bought up by Sony about a year ago or so.)
EDIT: Yes there is a free trail version still available here
G.