Mike,

I would definitely start with Cakewalk. It is free and it is a fully fledged DAW.
Mario above said he never looked back... Well, I did. Studio one does not come close in certain areas of Cakewalk as far as workflow goes. I tried it at the same time Mario did, but switched back. Since Cakewalk was acquired, it was updated regularly. If you are coming from Cool Edit Pro, this would be an easy and free transition.

One of the things that I like about Cakewalk is that it is very "modular". You can discard many buttons/menus from view, leaving basic stuff for tracking and yet have other "scenes" with completely customized menus in the same project for deep editing.

And most importantly, it has a very strong, supportive community. Most questions, simple or tricky ones are usually answered within couple of hours.

For the sounds VST's:
If you need GM - Halion Sonic
If you do not need GM - Kontakt
Budget: Sample Tank. Sometimes it is sold ridiculously cheap.


Good luck.

Misha.