Creaza is a web based tool designed for learners and educators. But spend a few moments with it and you realize that Creaza has scope beyond that. All of it underlined with fun.

What if I gave you four tools that inspire creative, fun ideas – a mindmapper, a cartoon creator, a movie editor and an audio application and asked you to let loose your creativity. I am sure you could come up with a lot of creative and fun ideas. That’s the canvas Creaza gives you to play around with.

Creaza is a suite of four apps for making planning, creating and publishing digital content, or for the fun of it, let’s say digital stories. The four creative apps are :

Mindomo – Organize Your Thoughts

The first step for any creative process is the organization of thoughts or ideas. That’s why you need to start with a mind mapping tool. Mindomo is a Flash based mind mapper. Like any other mind mapping application, you start with a central idea and branch it out to associated ideas, linking them to each other with relationship connectors.

Mindomo is a simple but rich mind mapper which lets you add images, hyperlinks and symbols to beautifully render your thought process on screen. Like a versatile mind mapping utility, it lets you select from a variety of map style and layouts.

Cartoonist – Artwork for Your Thoughts

The hard work of putting your ideas into shape starts with the cartooning tool. Cartoonist is a simple tool with a very short learning curve. The first step lets you select your cartoon theme from the eight provided. For instance you can go for a Manga look or take the one which resembles the classic cartoons of the past. Each theme comes with its own characters, backgrounds and props.

Combine all the artwork in the cartoon editor. You can tell a whole story using sequential cartoon slides. Change the mood of the characters with a single click, change day into night, give the characters dialogues using speech bubbles or do a bit of freehand drawing – just some of the things your creativity can play around with.

The inbuilt player lets you playback the frame where each frame gets displayed for four seconds. You can print out the work or show it on the web.

AudioEditor – Sound Bytes for Your Thoughts

Podcasts have made listening to audio clips cool. The AudioEditor lets you do just that. Make your own audio clips, edit uploaded clips on the timeline or record sound and re-use it, the editor lets you do all that. The audio application also comes with a library of default clips and sound effects.

MovieEditor – Motion Clips for Your Thoughts

If a cartoon is not realistic enough for your story, move to the MovieEditor. The MovieEditor has the same feel and look as other online movie editors (except that it starts with two themes). The Library hold many default video clips as well your own uploaded bits, the Timeline where you drag film, sound, or music clips, as well as your still shots and arrange them into your final movie, and finally the Media Window is the inbuilt player to see how things are shaping up.

Sound effects and special effects have their place on the timeline. The provided media clips might not stretch your story, but the editor gives you the option of uploading your own.

Creaza gives us lots of flexibility to make our own multimedia shows. There are some limitations like the free membership on Creaza entitles us to only 25 MB of storage space for personal media files. But even that’s sufficient for publishing a few stories. The only minus is that the finished product can be shared through a URL – there’s no provision to export it as a finished Flash file.

The full version though opens up many more import and export options for the multimedia content and provides more themes.

Creaza is mostly geared as a teaching aid. The free tools make it easy to translate ideas through easier to understand multimedia presentations.

For instance, take a few cartoons or a video clip and put together a small show on global warming. The cartoon strips can be used to explain anything from eclipses to ethics.

The web application also seems to have collected some recognition for itself as a teaching aid. But its possibilities are limited only by the word we started our post with – creativity.

What uses can you put this tool to? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Sporcle – Cool Games That Make Learning Fun Again (4)
• 7 Free Open Source Video Editors For Linux (28)
• 5 Great WebComics you Should Read (58)
• Yahoo! Games: WordRacer is my Boggle Game of Choice (6)
• Wordle – Become Addicted To RSS Feeds The Fun Way (13)

All you have to do is visit Make Own Ringtone and follow these easy steps. And when I say easy steps, I mean really easy steps. Your Grandma could do it!

Once you arrive at the site, you will see something that looks like this:

Next up you will need to upload your audio file. Make sure you know where it is located and hit the upload button. Once you click this button your file browser will pop up.

Select the audio file you want to use as your ring tone and hit open. Don’t worry if you only want to use the chorus or a small part of the file we will get to this shortly.

Once you click Open the file will be uploaded to the remote server for processing. All the editing will happen in your browser. This makes everything VERY easy! You will see a progress bar that looks like this:

Once the file has been successfully uploaded you will see the audio layout of the track. There is a time line so if you will know how far in the part you want is – this is the best way to do it. You can also play it here and when you find the start and end point of your ringtone, mark them with a simple click.

The first click marks the beginning and the second click marks the end – simple right? Go ahead and set yours when you are ready move on to the final steps.

The Make A Ringtone button is a little hidden if you have a small monitor so scroll down and find the button. There are also buttons to normalize the sound (make it all one volume) and to fade in and out at the beginning and end.

Once you click the Make A Ringtone button you will see the following screen allowing you to download your free ringtone and either email it to your friends or share it with them via your favorite social network!

Mark previously showed us how to make free ringtones using Audacity. How do you make ring tones? Let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Snaptu- Free iPhone Theme for Pocket PC or Cellphone (8)
• How To Trace & Deactivate A Stolen Cell Phone (6)
• How To Mix Your Own Music Online & Be An Internet DJ (8)
• How To Make MP3 Mobile Ringtones With Audacity (9)
• How To Install Google Android On A Windows Mobile Phone (20)

Unfortunately, mixing audio not only entails picking the tracks to mix, but also downloading beats, sound effects, and an audio mixing program. Sometimes, doing all that is worth it, but if you’re looking for something simpler, like an online audio editor already packaged with beats to mix, then give the following websites a shot.

DubStep Studio

Previously known as Electro-House Blender, DubStep Studio’s interface is beautiful and extremely simple, and it includes a decently sized sound library for your mixing pleasure.

To add a track to a song, simply click the “Add Sounds” button, and a panel will pop up that splits the available sounds into further categories, such as “Keyboard” or “Sound Effect.” The tracks are not named according to how they sound, and there is no search box, so you may need to preview all of the tracks before you find the right one. Adding the track to the song is as simple as clicking the plus sign next to its name, and then clicking the beats in which you want the it to be heard. From the workspace, you can delete tracks, change the volume of each track, and control whether the track is heard primarily from the left or right speaker.

You can try DubStep Studio to mix your own music without registering, but in order to save or open files, you must register. Even so, users cannot upload their own music into the mixer, nor can they export the song so it can be accessed offline. Despite these shortcomings, DubStep Studio’s ease of use and polished presentation make it a worthwhile app to check out– at least, for someone who wants to try mixing music without any heavy duty commitment.

Jam Glue

Though Jam Glue is not the eye candy that DubStep Studio is, its wider range of features outshines DubStep Studio in every aspect. Not only does the search function exist, but it also gives the user the option of searching by the song’s approximate tempo.

Registered users are allowed to either upload a .mp3, .wav, or .wma file, or import audio from an URL, although there is a large statement warning the user not to upload copyrighted material.

The process of editing is virtually the same in both webapps – there is no option to scale the size of the track to inspect the waveform more closely, and Jam Glue’s “snap clips to beat” feature replicates the effect of clicking where youwant your track to go in DubStep Studio. However, Jam Glue has the added functionality of being able to scale the speed of any track and sync the tracks to a user specified beats-per-minute. Jam Glue also allows users to rearrange the order of their tracks, making editing overall a much smoother process than it would have been in DubStep Studio.

After you have completed and saved the track ( assuming you are a registered user), Jam Glue gives you the option of downloading the track. However, this option is hidden in the bottom of the mix details page and is only accessible after the song has been “published” to Jam Glue’s database.

After you have tried these two webapps to mix your own music, perhaps you will decide that DJing is indeed your forte. In that case, I would highly recommend Audacity, the tried and true software for editing music, or the previously covered Mixxx. Or, if you’re just looking for a simple editor to make ringtones, check out Zedge or Make Own Ringtone. Both are browser based, although Zedge requires registration before use.

Have you tried any of the aforementioned apps? Do you have your own secret weapons, to be deployed when you suddenly decide you really really want to mix music? Lets hear about it in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Rock On With Free Mixxx Music Mixing Software (11)
• Normalize MP3 Volume Levels with MP3Gain (10)
• Record audio files with Audacity (12)
• Manage your iPod with SharePod (15)
• Make Use Of Podcast #48: How to Podcast Pt. 3 (7)

I’m sure you’ll agree that the one annoying thing when enjoying a random mix of your favorite tunes is the change in quality, especially in the volume. Since our music originates from so many different sources, quality is never the same, but variations in the volume are most unpleasant.

While it’s difficult to fix the overall quality, it’s rather easy to normalize MP3 volume levels with the right tool. That’s where MP3Gain comes in.

MP3Gain, does statistical analysis to determine how loud a file sounds to the human ear. Most other normalizers work with peak normalization, normalizing a song’s value based on its loudest passage. Furthermore, you will love to hear that normalizing your MP3s with MP3Gain has no effect on the quality, as no decoding or encoding takes place.

The program was primarily written for Windows. However, there is a Linux GUI and a MacMP3Gain version available.

So how does it work? It’s pretty simple. You add files or folders and set the target volume. The default is 89,0 dB. In other tools, you will find up to 92,0 dB as a default volume for normalization. However, I would always go with the default of the respective tool, unless you know what you’re doing when changing this.

When you have added all files you wish to normalize, click the Analysis button. From there, you can select either Track or Album analysis in the pull-down menu. MP3Gain now analyzes each file to check the current volume and whether the file has clipping issues. The Track Gain indicates the increase or decrease in volume required to match the target volume. You can clear the results by selecting Clear Analysis from the Analysis button pull-down menu.

Once the analysis process is completed, you can click the Gain button to initiate the suggested changes. Note that there is also a drop-down menu for this button from which you can select Track, Album or Constant, depending on what type of adjustments you prefer. The included help file does a very good job of explaining what the differences are.

Should you realize that you’ve made the wrong selection, you can cancel anytime and undo all changes MP3Gain made. Simply add all of the edited files that were previously modified and select >Modify Gain >Undo Gain changes from the menu.

MP3Gain should solve the issue of varying volume levels in any MP3 collection easily!

Are you aware of any better app that can be used to normalize mp3 volume levels? Let us know in comments!

We have previously covered tools to enhance your mp3 collection:

Stefan covered 4 Easy Ways Fix Music Tags & Organize Music Library and Mahendra wrote about How To Convert Audio Cassettes & LPs to MP3 in 5 Easy Steps.

What else would you like to know? We appreciate your feedback and requests!

Image credits: fangol

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Join MP3 Files Together with Merge MP3 (19)
• How To Mix Your Own Music Online & Be An Internet DJ (8)
• How To Extract Audio From FLV Files [Mac Only] (18)
• How To Convert Audio Cassettes & LPs to MP3 in 5 Easy Steps (11)
• Top 3 Sites For Streaming Your Music Anywhere (16)

We have covered Audacity before, to record audio files or create your own MP3 ringtones. Now let’s see how you can use it to convert your audio cassettes and LPs to MP3 files. This article assumes you’re using Audacity on Windows, but you can also do this on Mac/Linux.

What You Need

Equipment

1. Computer with a sound card. Check that your sound card has a LINE IN jack (generally blue), and ensure that you have the latest drivers for your sound card.

2. Cassette Deck/Turntable. This is your audio source. You can use a tape deck, or an amplifier or receiver connected to a turntable. Whatever you use, the audio source should have RCA LINE OUT jacks (preferred) or at least a stereo-mini headphone jack.

Clean the audio head and pinch roller of your tape deck with a clean cloth dabbed in alcohol. Also, forward and rewind your unused cassettes to remove residual moisture and ensure smooth playback. If using records, clean them to reduce clicks.

3. Audio Cable. One end of your cable will be a stereo-mini. Depending on the jack you use on the audio source, the other end should be either RCA or stereo-mini. Use a cable with gold-plated jacks for best results.

Software

1. Download and install Audacity 1.3 (Beta). We use the latest Beta version as it has better noise removal features.

2. Download and install the Lame Encoder. This is required for exporting to MP3 format.

Steps

1. Connect your equipment

Connect the deck’s LINE OUT or PHONES jack to the LINE IN jack on your computer using your audio cable.

2. Setup Audacity

Start Audacity, select Edit-Preferences. In the Audio I/O section, set both playback and recording devices specifically to the sound card in which your cable is plugged. Do NOT use Microsoft Sound Mapper on Windows PCs.

Start playback from your audio source and adjust the volume level in Audacity. Click the down arrow next to the microphone icon and select Start Monitoring. While playing the loudest part of your audio track, adjust the input level slider on the Mixer Toolbar such that the meters almost reach the right end of the scale. If they actually reach the end such that they ‘hold’, reduce the input level to avoid distortion.

3. Record

Create a new project by selecting File-Save Project As. Start recording with the red Record button and start playback from your audio source. Use the blue Pause button between tracks or sides. When finished, press the yellow Stop button and save your project using File-Save Project.

4. Edit

You will probably have unwanted noise in your recording, such as background hum, tape hiss, or vinyl record clicks. For removing noise, select the beginning of your recording where the playback has started with the hum and hiss, but the music is yet to start. To select, simply use the mouse to click and drag at the start of the track.

Select Effect-Noise Removal, and click Get Noise Profile. Now, select the entire track by choosing Edit-Select-All, and choose Effect-Noise Removal again. Set the Noise Reduction (dB) slider to around 10 to 20 depending upon the level of noise in your source, set the other two sliders in the middle, and click OK. You can review the result by playing the track, using Edit-Undo and trying with different noise samples and slider levels.

If you are using vinyl records as your input, you may want to try using Effect-Click Removal to remove unwanted clicks. Always feel free to experiment and undo as needed to get the best results. When you are satisfied, use File-Save Project to permanently save your edited track.

5. Export

To export a single audio file, use File-Export As.

Most likely, you will have multiple tracks or songs in your recording, and it makes sense to export them as multiple files. Ensure you have all the tracks recorded, using the Fit Project button on the Edit Toolbar. The number of ‘boxes’ or ‘balloons’ should correspond to the number of tracks. Using the zoom controls, click in the gap between songs, choose Tracks-Add Label at Selection. Name the labels as per your song titles.

Select File-Export Multiple, choose MP3 Files as the Export format. Click Options to use the built-in presets to select the quality of the MP3. Higher quality produces larger MP3 files. You can repeat the export several times with different options and check the results. You can also specify metadata tags to make it easier to organize your tracks in iTunes.

That’s it, you’re done! You can discard those cassettes/LPs or gift them to your Grampa, now that you’ve got your favorite oldies music on your iPod. Let us know which record or tape albums you created in the comments! If you’re familiar with some other tool that can be used to convert LPs to MP3 please share it with others in comments as well.

(Note: Some images are taken from the Audacity 1.3.7 Beta Manual, available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.)

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Normalize MP3 Volume Levels with MP3Gain (10)
• Record audio files with Audacity (12)
• Max – The Multitalented Audio File Converter for Mac (4)
• Make Use Of Podcast #48: How to Podcast Pt. 3 (7)
• Make Unique Free Ringtones & Share Them With Friends (8)

There have been some major successes as well as failures through the years. The most popular successful mixing application that many amateur music enthusiasts have used for a long time is Audacity, which Mark covered in an article on how to record audio files with Audacity.

However, many DJs want the additional features that their old turn-table mixers had through the years. These DJs are always in search of free music mixing software that can not only offers the features of those devices, but in many cases can actually incorporate those sounds, such as the sounds from vinyl.  Luckily, there’s free software available that can do all of that and then some.

Rock On With Mixxx

Mixxx started out as a open source project, and had its own page on Sourceforge.  Today, you can find the download at its own website, and still for free. Installation takes seconds, and when it first comes up, the first thing you’ll notice is that it’s pretty obvious the application was designed by a DJ.

The screen certainly looks like it’s some 1980’s DOS application, but apparently that’s only to give the interface a “vintage” look.  All of the levers and knobs are controlled by the mouse – you simply click and drag.  Adding a playlist to the mixer is as simple as browsing and adding it to the list at the bottom.

In this case, I’ve added two MP3 tracks.  The application supports a number of formats including MP3, OGG, WAVE, and FLAC files. When you’re ready to start making magic, you can either click File and select “Load Song (Player 1)” or right click on the song itself in the playlist and select “Load in Player 1.”

Once they’re loaded up, you’ll see the audio wave forms in each track.

Changing The Face Of Music

Up to this point, I was tolerating the skin on this application, but to be honest I’m not the “vintage” type. I’m a geek, I like things that are shiny, flashy and cool.  This interface just didn’t cut it. However, after checking through the options, I was pleased to discover that there is an “interface” option where you can change the skin.

While the list of “skin” options is fairly short, the available styles are actually pretty cool. I thought the traditional look, shown below, was kind of neat. The layout offers you the sort of mixer feel and look that you’d expect from mixing devices.  Slide the volume, tempo, and crossfade bars back and forth with your mouse just as you would with your hand.

However, my favorite skin is the “Collusion” skin, which features a science fiction look, with metallic blue and gray shading and a very cool graphical interface for the knobs and sliders.

Free Music Mixing Software Features

When it comes to free software for mixing music, you don’t always get the most advanced features. Or, if the software has the ability to do anything more advanced than the simple cutting and pasting of audio tracks, you usually have to purchase the software. That’s not the case with Mixxx – this application is packed with some pretty advanced features and it still retains its “free” status.

One of the coolest features, in my opinion, is that you can run the audio output of your turntable into the computer where you’ve got Mixx running. Mixx has the ability to read time coded records. It is compatible with a number of time codes including FinalScratch, Serato/Traktor and many others. It can also read in timecoded CDs by using two soundcards for each single stereo line-in.

That means you can use two deck inputs, and Mixxx now even has a built-in preamp. However the quality is much better if you connect your own actual preamp, but the option is there if you need it.  Additionally, there are a number of other input devices that Mixxx supports.  You can configure these devices in the “Input Control” section under “Options.”

The list of MIDI controllers that Mixxx supports is impressive. Just a few of these include Evolution X-Session, Hercules DJ Consoles (MK2, RMX, Mac), Mixman DM2, FaderFox DJ2 and many others. Mixxx also  supports a list of output drivers, which you can configure under “Sound Hardware” in the Options.

In this area you can set up your headphones, the sample rate of the output audio, and obviously which sound driver you want to use. Set your pitch and latency settings and you’re ready to rock.

Finally, if you want to come across as a professional DJ and show off your skills, you’ve got to have your crossfading taking care of. No one has any respect for a DJ who can’t transition without missing a beat, and with the Mixxx crossfading feature, you’re covered.

This is also found in the Options area. Set up the speed and style of crossfade and create your own transition. Make it funky if you want to add your own signature style of fade, or just make it an average transition if you’re more conservative. How you set up your crossfading between tracks is completely up to you – you’re the DJ!

The market for free music mixing software is pretty sparse, so when you come across an application like Mixxx that offers the sort of features you’d only find in a professional commercial software package, you know you’re onto a good thing.

What sound mixing applications do you like to use to edit your audio or mix music tracks? Share your opinions in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• How To Mix Your Own Music Online & Be An Internet DJ (8)
• TubeRadio.fm– A Slick & Cool Internet Music Player for YouTube (8)
• The BIG Book of iTunes [Free PDF Download] (47)
• Synchronize MP3s To Non-Apple Devices with doubleTwist [Mac] (0)
• Sync All of Your Media Files in One Place with doubleTwist (12)

So Merge MP3 helps by allowing me to join all MP3 files together into one big MP3 file. This means that they can all play one after another without a break. I don’t have to think about whether the track is about to end or not. I can just hit “play” and enjoy the music / comedy.

The only slight snag with this app is that you can hear a very slight “jump” where the audio files connected with one another. The merging isn’t totally seamless. But this is a very minor thing as far as I’m concerned. Audio quality fanatics on the other hand will have high blood pressure problems and go totally off their heads.

What I particularly like about Merge MP3 is that it is a portable app, no installation required. So just download the app, transfer it to your thumb drive and you can merge mp3 files together on any Windows PC.

When you double-click on the .exe file, it opens up the interface:

Then either navigate to the MP3 files you want to merge, or (even easier), drag and drop the MP3 files onto the Merge MP3 app :

After choosing a target folder, a name for your newly merged file and completing the new ID3 tag, the app gets to work joining all the files together one by one. In my case, it took less than 5 seconds.

Now I have one big file, instead of 14 little ones! So another advantage is that it tidies up your computer folders!

Do you use another free app to merge MP3 files?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Normalize MP3 Volume Levels with MP3Gain (10)
• Top 3 Sites For Streaming Your Music Anywhere (16)
• The 5 Good Free Windows File Managers (51)
• TaggedFrog – Cool File Tagging App for Windows (9)
• Tag2Find – Tag Files in Windows for Better Organization (4)

The podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player

• Sounddogs
• Soundsnap
• Sound Rangers
• Podsafe Music Network

[display_podcast]

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Make Use Of Podcast #45: How to Podcast pt. II (8)
• Top 5 Sites For Free Sound Effects Downloads (22)
• Normalize MP3 Volume Levels with MP3Gain (10)
• Make Use Of Podcast #43: How to Podcast (5)
• How To Mix Your Own Music Online & Be An Internet DJ (8)

In case you are searching for a good video editor for linux, here are some of the good options that you can use in your Linux machine. Some of them are available for Windows and Mac as well. Do check them out even if you are not using Linux.

1. Avidemux

Avidemux is a free video editor used mainly for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. It is often dubbed as the VirtualDub for Linux as it can do many things that VirtualDub can do. It supports many files types, including avi, DVD compatible mpeg files, mp4, asf and even the not-so-common ogm and matroska format.

Some of the useful features of Avidemux include a simple WYSIWYG interface, easy conversion from one format to another, plenty of filtering effects and a built-in subtitles processing capabilities.

2. Cinelerra

Cinelerra is a powerhouse video editing software used by many professionals for high quality video production. Cinelerra does mainly three things: capturing, compositing, and editing. It has a great support for very high-fidelity audio. In addition, it is resolution and frame rate-independent.

What this means is that it can handle all sorts of video resolution, regardless of whether it is standard or high definition (HD), without any issue.

If you are using a high-end graphics card, Cinelerra allows you to preview your edited video in real time without any rendering required. This makes your video editing much more faster, easier and intuitive.

Cinelerra is not updated very frequently. If you are looking for an updated version with more features, you should install the Cinelerra-CV community version instead.

3. FFmpeg

Unknown to many, FFmpeg is the most widely used application in Linux. FFmped is a command line tool that is composed of a collection of open-source libraries. With these sets of libraries, one can easily record, convert and stream digital audio/video in numerous formats. It does not come with a GUI, but it is used by many video players/converters as the backend application.

4. Jashaka

Jahshaka is a software that has not been updated since November 2006. Nevertheless, it is still a powerful video editing application that can turn you into a professional. There are plenty of useful features in Jahshaka. Functions include adding effects in real time, adding animations with unlimited features, paint and design on moving video and working in any video format at any resolution makes it a very versatile and sturdy video editor.

Jahshaka makes use of the OpenLibraries as its backend support. The Openlibraries are a powerful set of C++ libraries that provides its users tools to edit, compose, play media, encode and image process.

Jahshaka is cross platform and available for Linux, Mac and Windows.

5. Kino

Kino is a video editing software mainly for Digital Video (DV). If you take a lot of video shots with your video cam, then Kino is the application that can make life very easy for you.

Kino is a non-linear DV editor for Linux. It is a simple software with some useful functions. You can edit, split, trim, add filters and even publish your video to blip.tv. It supports Firewire and IEEE-1394 and is able to capture video from a Firewire connected DV device.

One of its best features is that it supports a wide variety of video formats (DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4) and you can export your work to any of your preferred formats.

6. LiVES Video Editor

LiVES started off as a Linux Video Editing System, but it is now supported in the various OS’s.

The power of LiVES lies in its ability to mix realtime video performances and non-linear editing in one application. It supports multitrack timelines and enables you to import, edit and mix several video tracks at the same time.

There is a VJ mode that allows VJ to set multiple real time effects during playback. There are also plenty of effects that one can add to your videos.

Overall, LiVES is a simple to use, yet powerful and flexible video editing tool with plenty of customization options.

7) KDEnlive

KDEnlive stands for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor. Started as part of the KDE project, it is also available for various desktop managers in Linux.

At first use, I found KDEnlive surprisingly fast and easy to use. It integrates well with the desktop manager and has an simple interface. Most of the stuff (such as adding effects, adding clips) can be easily done by drag-and-drop action, which makes it very user-friendly.

It supports a wide variety of file formats, as well as a wide range of camcorders and cameras. Like LiVES, it allows multitrack editing of unlimited video and audio tracks. There are some nice effects with KDEnlive such as sepia, grayscale, gamma, inverse color and speed changes. One thing that I like is that the effect is rendered on the fly and you can immediately see the preview to checkout the video effect. This is surely one of the great pieces of software that I would recommend.

In conclusion, there are plenty of video editors out there and all have their own pros and cons. Choosing the best one for you depend on what features you need and the level of your technical skills. Some are good for expert users (Cinelerra) while some are designed for beginners (Kino, KDEnlive). Take your time to review each and every one of them and you will be able to find the best one for you.

Have I missed out any other video editors for Linux?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• 5 Easy-to-use Freeware Video Converters (49)
• xVideoServiceThief – Ultimate Download Manager for Online Videos (25)
• Top Online File Converters (Video, Audio, Images …) (23)
• Top Free Media Converters for Windows (32)
• Merge Multiple Video Files With VirtualDub (16)

I’ll also take a look at what multi-track means, why it’s important and how to record and edit your voice track.  Next time, I’ll go into detail on mixing your music, sound effects and audio clips into the podcast.

The podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player.

[display_podcast]

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Make Use Of Podcast #48: How to Podcast Pt. 3 (7)
• Welcome to the MakeUseOf.com Podcast #1 (19)
• Two Websites to Watch Talks by Great Thinkers and Doers (10)
• Top 5 Podcast Directories you Should See (9)
• THE 9 daily show – 9 Best Things from the Web (3)