At last we reach the final installment of this series, the question & answer stage in which we'll consider some of the common problems encountered with audio and MIDI on Linux, along with some common and perhaps not-so-common solutions to those problems. We've looked at some indispensable items for your Linux system troubleshooting toolkit, now let's see how they are applied.

Ardour is currently the most advanced digital audio workstation for Linux. However, several other useful applications are also available. This article presents Traverso, Qtractor, Wired, Frinika, and Protux DAWs.

Listen is a not so widely known audio player written in Python and using the GTK toolkit, with an interface similar to the one of Rhythmbox, and including features like a music library, podcasts support, lyrics fetching, Wikipedia integration, and Last.fm song submission.

Trinity Audio Group is taking orders for a handheld multi-track recording device that runs Linux. The Indamixx integrates the 64Studio Linux music distribution with an off-the-shelf Samsung handheld, so audio producers can record, edit, equalize, audition, and mix audio at up to 32-bit/96Khz rates on-the-go, the company says.

Meanwhile, this week we'll look at two excellent applications that are coming into greater use here at Studio Dave, the LiVES video editor for Linux, and Reaper (yes, again), a native Windows audio/MIDI sequencer running under Wine.

M-Audio has supplied hardware and software to computer-based musicians for 20 years. Its new "make-music-now" line of products, aimed at musicians just getting into computers or PC users with an interest in music, includes a microphone, speakers, drum machine, and DJ mixer deck. Unfortunately, its bundled software, called Session, is for Windows only. Our challenge was to try out this hardware -- specifically the KeyStudio MIDI keyboard and Fast Track audio interface -- with Linux applications. We were half successful.

A digital audio editor is a computer application for audio editing or digital audio manipulation. Usually, a digital audio editor allows the user to record and edit audio, mix multiple sound sources/tracks, apply simple or advanced effects or filters, playback sound, and convert different audio file formats and different sound quality levels.

Streamripper is cool Open Source (GPL) application that lets you record streaming mp3 to your hard drive i.e. download online streams into audio files. It can records shoutcast and icecast compatible streams. It uses meta data within a shoutcast stream to determine the beginning and end of each song, and stores the songs on your hard disk as individual mp3 files.

Review of ten most popular Linux applications. 1. Amarok - Audio Player