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OK, here's a quick-start guide for making boots in Cool Edit Pro 2 (though the basic process can be completed in various other pieces of software - CEP2 is just the one that I use). It's by no means comprehensive, and the best way to work out the more complicated features and really get a feel for the software is simply to goof around. I'm also gonna assume that you've got half a clue cos I'm not explaining how to do stuff like select part of a waveform or open files (if you can't figure stuff like that out on your own then step away from the computer right now).
Still with me? Then let's get started. First you need to be aware of the two modes of the software - Edit View, where you can work on a single waveform and Multitrack View, where you can arrange multitrack mixes. You hit F12 to switch between these, or press the big button top left that looks like this
Right - now as I said, Edit View is where you do all the messing around with individual tracks. This includes everything from shifting pitch and tempo, to applying filters and doing stupid tricks with reverb (but you can find out about the more complicated stuff yourself) Let's get started with an instrumental - I'm gonna use Long Hard Road Out Of Hell by Marilyn Manson (you can find this on SCO's KDX server if you wanna follow what I do in this walkthough). Switch to Edit View and open that sucker. First thing I always do with tracks once I've opened them is to re-save them in another folder as a WAV . That way I don't accidentally screw up the original, and Cool Edit can work with WAVs a lot quicker because it doesn't have to keep compressing/uncompressing them (plus the final sound quality will be higher).
Your version of CEP2 may colour things differently to the picture shown - you can alter the display colours by going to Options | Settings, but things should be more or less in the same places as in the picture above. I've checked the BPM of the instrumental using a manual BPM counter - the one I used is a WinAMP plugin called DJ Helper and you can get it from the WinAMP site, though there's dozens of similar plugins available for free over there. It's important that you get a manual counter (i.e. you have to hit a button in time with the music), cos the automatic ones can screw up, and we need to be accurate. I've found the BPM of the instrumental to be about 124 BPM. I'm also gonna use the acapella to What's My Name by DMX (also on SCO's KDX server). It's more difficult to figure out the BPM of this track cos (obviously) you can't actually hear the beat. I took my best guess at hitting the counter in time with the music and got 110BPM but I'm only gonna consider this a ball-park figure right now. I'll probably have to try a few times before I nail this exactly. Anyway, I've now got both the tracks open and the information I need to start booting. It's time to switch to......
Click that button I mentioned earlier, or hit F12. From now on I'll assume you can remember how to switch between one mode and the other. You should be able to see various (probably 3 or 4) tracks. They'll be empty right now, but you're about to fill the first couple of them. Right-click on the top one (should be numbered 1), go to Insert, and near the bottom of the menu you should get a list of the acapella and instrumental that you've got open in Edit View (you did leave them open, right?).
Insert the instrumental and the acapella onto seperate tracks. Incidentally, I like to put whatever track has the beat I'm working to on the top row, but you can stick it wherever. You should get something that looks like the pic below. Now hit the play button bottom left and lets see how things sound shall we?
Ugh. That's not cool. The DMX track is a little too loud for the Manson one and they're totally out of time with each other. On the plus side though, I think the two tracks will suit each other. This is just something that you'll either get or won't get and it's not something I can teach I'm afraid; best advice I can offer is practice and listen to what other people do to get ideas.
I've decided that I wanna speed up Long Hard Road.... Why? I dunno; I just like speeding things up. I'm not gonna go overboard at this stage though - I'll aim to get both tracks running at 130 BPM, mix them together and if the final mix is too slow then I'll whack it up another notch or two afterwards. My calculator says that 130 BPM is 4.8% bigger than 124 BPM (the speed of my instrumental), so I need to make the instrumental run 4.8% faster. I could just speed the whole thing up but that would make it higher-pitched (like running a 33 RPM record at 45 RPM). Instead, I need to Tempo-Shift it. Go back to Edit View, and select the whole waveform. You can now either use the Organiser Window on the left of the screen and click on Time/Pitch | Stretch, or go to the menu bar and Effects | Time/Pitch | Stretch (both shown below).
You'll get a handy little box pop up, and the makers of CEP2 have helpfully given you an explanation of things. Stick your ratio in the first box - I want to run the instrumental 4.8% faster, that's 104.8% in total, so I've put 104.8 in that box. Make sure you've got Time Stretch and High Precision clicked, just like I do in the handy picture below. Incidentally, this is the same place you come if you wanna pitch-shift something (i.e. make it higher or lower pitched without changing the tempo).
We also need to whack up the tempo of the DMX track. An extra 18.2% by my reckoning, but it'll probably be a ways out. Still, it should give us an idea.
OK - now we switch back to Multitrack View and our tracks will have their tempo changed. However, we're still gonna need to line up the acapella with the instrumental (can't have DMX rapping off the beat now, can we?). The bit of the DMX track that I clocked to calculate the BPM was the chorus, so the sensible thing to do would be to try and line that up with the chorus part of the instrumental. Right-click and hold the mouse button down to slide a track back and forth or move it up and down. Your ears are pretty damn good at spotting when something isn't hitting the beat, and with practice you'll be able to tell whether an acapella is ahead of or behind the beat. Chances are you'll need to zoom into the multitrack mix to get things spot on - use the magnifying glass buttons to zoom in and out. Alternatively, you can use a mouse-wheel - point it at the bar above the mix to zoom. Case in point? My ears say that the DMX acapella is running too slow. If I put the bit where he shouts 'DMX' at the point where the chorus guitars kick in, then he should shout the next 'DMX' when the guitars loop. He comes in late, so the acapella must be too slow. Time to go back and play with the tempo until I get it spot on. This is purely a trial and error process, but again it's something that gets easier with practice. See how I solved this problem.....
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or this 
(appearance varies depending on which mode you're in).
