8-Track is how garage bands and lower level bands used to record “back in the day”.... Back then it was basically a glorified cassette recorder that recorded up to 8 “tracks”. It let you do some lower level mixing (combining tracks into one, moving parts around, that sort of thing).
Today, you can buy the same thing but “digital”, so it’s like it’s own mini computer. I’ve got this one by TASCOM (http://www.guitarcenter.com/TASCAM-DP-02CF-Digital-Portastudio-104797642-i1380740.gc) and it works wonders. Takes an hour or so til you can muddle your way through it, a few days of using it and you’ll be a pro. Some of the digi-8 tracks you can even just burn a CD right there of it (or like mine just mp3 it and swap it over to PC for burning).
If you’re going to record stuff, I would DEFINITELY recommend this route. The software I used was a HUGE pain in the ass, and frankly wasn’t worth my time. I have a buddy in recording, and he actually went to school for it, and even he has trouble with some of them (every company seems to have their own way of setting it up).
When paired with a good mic and a decent room you can get borderline studio quality out of these things.