Hey Ed, it's good to read you have Cakewalk -- the best free DAW around, by a wide margin. Actually, I do all my editing anymore in cakewalk, although I consider myself to be a Cakewalk user and not an expert. For any sort of volume adjustments, I use the piano roll, and assign a Volume control to the track. Then I can use my mouse to "paint" any sort of volume alterations I wish. Works quite well for my needs.