Video editing software to add voice commentary

[Gravity]

Hey guys, anyone know of some software which I can use to post-process vidoes, recording my voice commentary whilst the video is playing back? It must be really easy to use since I'm not into video really. For Windows 7. (My Mac isn't fast enough for video work, so am doing all FRAPS on the PC rig; shame because Mac has this all for free).

I don't need any features other than being able to record live voice commentary as a new audio track for the AVI video.

Free software would be ideal.

[Insolence]

Only thing I can recommend is looking at ThePirateBay.org for some known one, it's what I do these days for expensive Apps etc. Pity you can't Fraps with Mac or I'd have said iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

Windows Movie Maker?

[Gravity]

Oh, btw, Insolence you were right I should have been doing this all along.
Record in FRAPS, edit out the bullshit, then record voice commentary. Does take some time but makes the footage much more informative.

I use warez-bb.org when needed, but still want an easy to use app. I suppose recommendations for commercial alternatives would be helpful too, but they must be EASY.

[Frozen]

For video editing, DON'T use the Windows 7 WMM. It's pure shit. While I can't think of a free alternative off hand, just warning you. I believe Vista has the same crappy editor.

[Gravity]

I tried Microsoft Expression (free) but it seems more oriented to some post-processing than editing.
I thought its predecessor Windows Media Encoder let me add audio tracks on the fly, but couldn't work out how to do it. Horrendous UI.
QuickTime Pro (which I have) doesn't do it either.

I'm using VirtualDub to join the several FRAPS files created, since it churns out 4GB segments rather than a long singular file (very annoying but FRAPS is the best choice, I'm told).
I then convert the file to MP4 H264 for youtube using "Any Video Converter" (freeware, that's its name), which is multi-CPU aware and does a really nice job, batch processing too.

[Gravity]

Ohh this software looks really good, simple and for people like me without a audio/video background.
Adobe Soundbooth

It includes

Recording new audio assets
Create new assets such as voice-overs from scratch by recording new mono or stereo audio files with markers and optional time stamps.

[Wake]

From the legend himself.

People often ask about my setup and methods, so here it is Feel free to use any of this information as you see fit. Info is provided as is and should not be construed as a recommandation or endorsement. This setup is non-ideal so please don't blame me if you end up buying things like this and complain they don't work as you wish them too. If you want actual advice on new hardware/audio equipment I can provide it, but please send me a private message for that.

WoW recordings use the same methodology as ISS2.

*Recording methodology*

For ISS2, I record in 720p with FRAPs at 30fps. I record sans commentary, put the footage into Adobe Premiere. I then replay the video while recording a commentary track over the top. Simple as that. It is not particularly time-consuming, actually the worst part of it is finding a replay that is interesting, then coaxing Starcraft 2 not to trigger the ATI Crossfire Bug that STILL has not been fixed after 3 months of beta.

SHOUTcraft is recorded differently. I have my mic and my Starcraft 2 setup on seperate soundcards. I have FRAPs record from the dedicated soundcard used for Starcraft 2 and I use my external soundcard, which is the best mic interface I have, to record the commentary. I record the commentary directly into Adobe Audition 3, while the video is FRAPsing. I ensure to assign the different cores of my quadcore CPU to each application for maximum effeciency. I FRAPs SHOUTcraft in 1080p at 25fps (maintaining 30fps at 1080p is a nightmare and not worth the hassle, if I had better hardware maybe I'd be able to pull that off). After the video has finished recording, I apply various post-production techniques to the commentary audio, including compression, noise-gating and normalisation. This is why the later SHOUTcraft videos tend to sound better than ISS2. It's also why they take longer to make.

That's basically that really, I use the following equipment.

Intel Q9550 overclocked to 3.6ghz
4gb OCZ Reaper-X DDR2-800 @ 4-4-3-15
2x ATI Radeon 5770 in Crossfire configuration, both overclocked as far as they will go.
FRAPsing to dedicated 500gb Samsung Spinpoint F3
Running Starcraft 2 off of Western Digital Raptor.
Recording audio to a seperate Samsung Spinpoint F1.

Audio equipment :-

Creative Professional EMU 0404 USB2.0 External audio interface.
Some random OEM external USB soundcard to record game audio, you pretty much can't tell the difference between an expensive and cheap soundcard for background game audio. An onboard soundcard would work just as well, but bear in mind that using onboard sound has a small performance impact on the system.
Electrovoice N/D767a Super-cardoid dynamic microphone (it's nice, but I'd never recommend this setup for someone since there are more cost effective and better sounding mics available, I just happened to have these on hand at the time). The mic is pop-shielded and backed with sound-absorbing foam tiles. Still not happy with the overall ambient noise level so I'm replacing the fans on my computer with something quieter.

Software :-

Adobe Audition 3 (basically the best multitrack audio editor I've ever used)
Adobe Premiere CS 4 (can you tell I like Adobe products?)
FRAPs

That about covers it I think.

[Gravity]

Thanks Wake.

Audition it is, then.

I tried Soundbooth because Adobe described it as simpler.
After installing the trial, I find you cannot watch the video and record voiceover at the same time.
Audition, however, does let you do both at the same time. Will try it now.

I wonder how easy/hard Premiere is to use... it's another professional product .

[Gravity]

Aha, worked it out.