A Win/Mac developer recently asked me what I thought about his plan to create a binary of his application and sell it to interested Linux sound and music people. He asked with some trepidation, having already received a rather critical chorus of objection from some overly enthusiastic Linux users.

You think portable music players are an untouchabe package ?!

If you do then think again, because the amazing Rockbox changed that ...

Aren’t you tired of those audio players with billions of useless features that clutter up their graphical interface? I am. Most of the time, the player looks good on paper, but when I’m faced with the interface, I don’t even know where to start in order to play my music. There are a lot of buttons, lists, combo boxes a bit everywhere and their usage is not so intuitive.

In this second and final part I'll demonstrate some of the loop-specific tools I've found in Ardour, Reaper, and Audacity. Tutorials and links to project demos are included, so warm up your headphones and let's get loopy.

v1:http://www.littleubuntu.com/blog/?p=3

v2:http://www.littleubuntu.com/blog/?p=168

Amarok is a really nice music player that connects to Wikipedia automatically, supports lyrics, uses AudioScrobbler and MusicBrainz, and connects to your iPod like nobody's business.

Not everyone needs to work with music scores on their computers, but if you're someone who does enter, edit, or store sheet music electronically, you can choose among many free software options.