Sometimes when you're watching online videos on youtube or other sites, you want to save some of them for later offline playback. You've probably heard of Firefox extensions like DownloadHeloper that can do this, but sometimes you may only have a bare version of Firefox, or perhaps a different browser, one that doesn't have a plugin for doing this. Using the tip below, you can save videos no matter what browser you're using.

Over the past few months I've been drifting into the world of Linux video applications and development. I've already written a review of the LiVES video editor, and I've made occasional reference to the Kino editor. Recently a reader asked if I'd tried a recent version of Kdenlive. I started looking into it and I liked what I saw. The following article is an account of my continuing experience with the latest codebase from the project.

When I began collecting links for the Linux Sound & Music Applications pages I frequented a variety of announcement and news services. Some of those services are no longer with us, some have been superceded by more comprehensive and modern channels, and a few have remained as primary sources for new and updated Linux audio software. SourceForge is one of those long-lived services that have remained relevant to my searches for new and interesting sound and music applications, so I decided to surf the Forge to find recent and maybe some not-so-recent developments in the world of Linux audio.

In this article I finish the process we started in the last episode. Read on for the thrilling denouement.

The Build

After all the preparation described in the first part of this article the build process itself is rather anticlimactic. Building from sources with the GNU autotools is this easy :

Recently I've received some mail asking for a brief explanation on how to build Linux audio applications from source code packages. Ask and ye shall receive, hence the following simple guide for the perplexed, the puzzled, and the downright mystified. Compiling software is hardly rocket science, and if an old guitar-picker like myself can do it certainly you can too.

According to its developers Guitarix is a monaural amplifier designed for creating the distorted sounds typical of thrash, heavy metal, blues, and other rock guitar styles. In fact, Guitarix is capable of much more than distortion sounds. In this article I'll remove the software speaker grill and pull out the virtual chassis to take a closer look at the sonic possibilities of this "simple mono amplifier".

LMMS is music creation software similar to programs such as GarageBand for OSX and FL Studio for Windows. Those programs are designed to streamline the process of making music with a computer in order to get new users into music composition as quickly and painlessly as possible. Their feature sets include preset audio loops, MIDI tracks, and other ready-made musical materials available for immediate use in a piece. Their GUIs invite involvement in the process of making music and it's clear that the designers want the user to have fun with the program and the process. In this mini-review we'll see if LMMS lives up to the precedents set by those programs.

One of the common questions we get here at linuxjournal.com is how we produce our videos. Shawn produced a howto video on some ways of doing it. The following describes how I capture my videos and also the script that I use to add the Linux Journal logo watermark to it.

Recently I profiled the latest LiVES video editing system, and in that article I mentioned that I intended to buy a camcorder for use with LiVES and other video editing software. Since then I purchased a Samsung SC-D382 midiDV recorder. Studio Dave is now on its way to becoming Studio DV.

Studio Dave is set up for personal audio production, but video capabilities are on the horizon. Digital video cameras are inexpensive and typically non-problematic with Linux, there are compelling professional reasons to get into video (Web-based tutorials are high on the list), and besides, it's just fun to play with video on the computer. Now the fun level has jumped up a few notches with version 1.0.0pre1 of LiVES, a video editing system for Linux.

LiVES is a video editing and VJ tool for Linux and BSD systems and today it celebrates its version 1.0 birthday. LiVES provides realtime video performance and non-linear editing for all classes of video editors and VJs (VJ is the Video equivalent of a DJ).

Recently I asked readers for suggestions regarding Linux audio topics they'd like to read about in my articles. One response suggested a survey of the various Internet communications channels for Linux-based musicians. I liked the idea, so I considered my traditionally preferred channels, searched for and found interesting new connections, and wrote this guide to lead you on a tour of notable communications channels focused on Linux sound and music topics.

On the 15th of May 2009 the Modartt company announced the release of version 3.0.3 of their award-winning Pianoteq, a professional-quality digital keyboard instrument created by an audio synthesis method known as physical modeling. The program is vastly praised by its users, but in order to feel the love you've had to run a Windows machine or a Mac box. Until now, that is. The latest release introduces various new attractions, and the one that interests me the most is support for a native Linux version. Check it out, commercial music software's finest virtual keyboard instrument is now available for Linux.

More noteworthy items from the Linux audio world, including news about some long-awaited releases.

I need at least one i386 installation here at Studio Dave because some production software is not yet 64-bit ready, and I happen to need that software. SuperCollider3 can run on a 64-bit system, but only after some tricky maneuvers; the label printing programs for my Lightscribe drive are 32-bit only; and VST/VSTi audio plugins still work best in a pure 32-bit system. My main production machine runs a pure 64-bit distribution (64 Studio), but an i386 box is still required for the complete Studio Dave.

This week we have more straight reporting from Studio Dave with a look at some conference activity, cool developments in the world of Ardour and news about some new and updated programs for your complete Linux music production studio.

In this article, I conclude my status report on the development of some of the most active notation software projects for Linux.

The following article presents a status report on the development of five of the most active notation software projects for Linux. Most of them are works in progress, but all are well along on their development track and in varying states of usability.

This week, I present two Studio Dave mainstays, the 64 Studio media-optimized Linux distribution and the Ardour digital audio workstation (DAW), both of which are in the late stages of development toward milestone releases. I invite my readers to take a look at what's coming our way in 64 Studio 3.0 and Ardour3.