Ardour (DAW) - Ardour is a *Free* (Free as in Free Speech, not free Beer), OpenSource Digital Audio Workstation. While it's available for Windows and Mac, I see no point (because REAPER and GarageBand), plus I'm moving to the "Advanced" stage now with all this stuff, so it's time to start acting like it. Ardour has the most freedom and options available, and is freely available via the LInux Mint Software Management program, compiled, and ready to rock. The downside is that it is not fully 100% free, requiring you to donate $45 or more or $45 or less depending on tier of support. FOr my uses, version 6 is fine, so I'll use this version as intended. To use it 100% free, you have to COMPILE the sourcecode into a usable program, which is a lot harder.

Guitarix (Guitar Amp Simulator) - Next on the list of software I use is Guitarix. Guitarix is a OpenSource Guitar Amp Modeler/simulator with built in effects (and access to other VST/LV2/VST3 effects) to do the same thing I've been doing with pedalboards for the last 20 years. Basically, you can choose your amplifier model, cabinet impulses, EQs, chorus, flange, delay, reverb, phaser, distortion, fuzz, etc....and do it all on the computer so less wires. Another thing you can do with this is just use it as a basic amplifier for jamming with YouTube or other things as well, or taking your laptop on vacataion with an electric guitar so you can rock out. This also includes JACK as a dependancy so you get the Jack Audio Interface with it as well. It also can be inserted in Ardour as a Plugin so you don't need to launch the program to use it.

Surge XT (Synthesizer Simulator) - Surge XT is another OpenSource, Free software for Linux that allows you to make classic synthesizer sounds. It's not tethered to any specific model or brand of Synthesizer, and it's standalone app is great for teaching yourself to use an analog or FM synthesizer (also key for my Guitari 2600 guitar project). It also works as a VST3 plugin in Ardour for making your own synth parts using the pre-made or your own self-made patches. THis is to replace the old BandLab "Virtual Instruments" since about 90% of the time, I was just using anything that sounded like a Synthesizer that could have existed in teh eighties or is a Video Game console run through a bunch of effects.

DrumGizmo (MIDI Based Drum Virtual Instrument) - Drum Gizmo is a user-editable OpenSource, free, Drum Tool. How it works is it takes samples of an actual drum kit, and allows you to map out it's beats in MIDI. While the program itself isn't that big, the drum kits it uses are HUGE - like 5.5GB huge, so you might want a large hard disk if you plan to use this program (128GB +). Other than that, works just like the drum kits in BandLab, maybe a little better since now I can chop things up into 64th notes if I want now, which I always wanted for some of the more exciting ideas.