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For tuning I recommend MiniTuner (win32 binary).
It is a free program to tune the guitar using a microphone. I have tried guitune and some other linux projects, but I couldn't get them to correctly recognize all the tones of my guitar. (Probably due to my rather poor build-in microphone.) At the moment I use MiniTuner under wine, which seems to work correctly.
I got it from a dutch site http://akkoord.be/downloads/software.htm, and it seems there is a newer version on http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/MiniTuner/ (disclaimer, I have not tested that version.)

and the reason you won't find many tools to help you author them, is basically this:

every CD-BGM disc also needs to include a CD-i application to allow for playback on a CD-i player.

If you read the CD-i spec, you'll see that it's basically just a generic "autoplay" type of disc. In fact, it may not even be that generic. Apparently, the CD-i machine either runs the OS-9 realtime operating system (made by these guys) or it's loaded from the disc itself.

So, to make your own discs, you need to add a software program (or maybe even an entire OS) along with the content.

1. Grab the MIDIs for your favorite game.
2. Grab Timidity++
3. Grab the Musica Theoria 2 soundfont, and the Timidity++ sample map for it
4. Convert your MIDIs to the audio format of your choice.

MOD4Win had "multiple data display", "database features", and "music control" in 1993. Not to mention that NeXTSTEP had the scrolling file chooser interface used by iTunes, many years prior to 1996. If anything, Apple might be able to countersue for this company copying *their* interface!

Sorry, their arguments aren't holding water. And I still don't see any player pianos. :-/

If you like that, try this: Fractmus 2000 (win32)

Try HitSquad's Software Music Machine. Plenty of free/shareware there.

When I want a program for a given purpose, I usually do a web search, find at least 5-10 candidate programs (by checking website quality, list of program features). I download about 5 of them and test them. At least one of them suits my needs.
I once searched for a sound recording program and I was really dissapointed by what I found as well but usually I find what I search for.

For music programs I find everything I need here

All you're paying for is convenience

Nope. You are also paying for

1. Quality - You can be sure that the song you just downloaded doesn't go like "What the f*ck do you think you're doing!"

2. Peace of mind - Nobody is going to come to your home and sue you for copyright infringement.

3. Moral Satisfaction - You actually PAID for it, rather than copying the art work of someone else without permission.

and more...

First off the availability is slowly but steadily increasing. With projects like Ardour nearing major releases even professional recording studios are starting to take note. Even the home user is finding more useful tools available. And with preemptive kernels there's lots of possibilities.

The future for Linux holds many things. Hackers composing music? You bet.

The RIAA's lawsuit tactics are not surprising to me, nor are they particularly new. We've actually seen this whole thing happen at least once already.

Way back in the early days of MP3 swapping, before anyone had ever come up with the idea of peer-to-peer, there used to be a lot of pirate mp3 FTP servers and webpages, there for the taking. I remember using a Windows web spider program called MP3Wolf that scanned the web for mp3 file links and listed them for you to choose from and download. I remember when about a zillion mp3s popped right up in the list, right there for the taking.

But then the RIAA and other powers-that-be started suing folks who ran those websites...and almost overnight, MP3Wolf started turning up zip. The RIAA didn't sue everybody running such a site...but they started suing enough of them that word got around it was distinctly hazardous to one's financial health to run an open mp3 download site...so the mp3s retreated onto IRC channels, leech-ratio FTP sites, and, on the web, behind a maze of warez site lists (of lists of lists of lists of sites, if you were lucky; if not, toss in a few more "lists of" in the middle), pop-up ads, and computer-killing pop-up browser window storms, and it was almost impossible to find a direct link to any mp3 files on the web, because if you could find it, so could the RIAA.

A friend of mine put it that the RIAA and the file swappers had reached a sort of de facto agreement: the swappers made the files nearly impossible to retrieve, and the RIAA pretended not to notice them. A balance was struck, and equilibrium was maintained. Until peer-to-peer came along and knocked the whole thing into a cocked hat.

Well, it's happening again. Granted, it's taking a bit longer than it did back then, as the record companies couldn't directly attack the legality of webpages and FTP sites so they had to cut right to the chase, but I think we're going to see a dramatic decline in the quantity and selection of songs flying around on KaZaa as the chilling effect brought on by the first round of lawsuits hits. Rhetoric of "dammit, we have a right to steal music! And it's not 'stealing' anyway because of (car analogy, furniture analogy)" Slashdotters notwithstanding, most file-sharers out there would rather not be prosecuted, even if they think they aren't doing anything wrong. If you don't know who's going to get slammed with a lawsuit, then you're not going to risk being one of them. And that's what the RIAA is after.

It won't be the end of it, of course; in a couple years or so, folks will come up with the next file-sharing paradigm (perhaps something Freenet-style, where there's almost no way to tell who's sharing what) and do an end-run around these lawsuits. And then the RIAA will try to work out how to counter that. And so it goes. To quote a Shirley Bassey/Propellerheads song that's floating around out there on peer to peer right now, "That's just a little bit of history repeating."

plenty of shareware and freeware on the net for simple recording. In fact, Hit squad shareware music machine is a wealth of shareware/freeware/crippled demoware to get you started.

wait! I almost forgot! PRO TOOLS FREE! Yep, what the professionals use, just with slightly less bells and whistles. Get your head around this, and you've got jobs waiting for you in recording studios.

Flash Player for Linux (Obvious)

Flash Usability (Flazoom!)

SWF Extractor (Windows prgrams that extracts images and mp3 files from a SWF file as separate files)

Unlock SWF (Open up compressed SWF files)

SWiSH (Low cost alternative to Macromedia)

RealPlayer - I have installed RealPlayer for Linux before that is out there. Google brings it back with this first item.

Sorry, can't help you on anything else.

Seeing that these days the only I time I am rebooting into Windows is to run Cubase and various other music apps this is good news. I have been desperately trying to bring my music production over to Linux, in fact I'm picking up my copy of "The Csound Book" today. Over the years I have tried, with varying degrees of success, to run many of the freely available sequencers (Jazz), software synths, etc. Although I have never been a huge fan of ReBirth I have a friend who uses it and sends me ReBirth files once in a while. It will be interesting to see how they function in ReBorn.

What you're looking for is a VST host program. This could, possibly, come in all sorts of forms but the most common is usually a sequencer/editing program that supports the use of VST plugins within. Do NOT buy Cubase just for that. Cubase is overfeatured and expensive. There are a number of free or rather inexpensive host programs out there for the Mac platform. Two that come to mind are VSTi Host and Bias-Inc's Vbox. That one is more impresssive looking, which functions as a plugin managing system, and can function either integrated within a larger host(such as Cubase)or on its own. It retails for 99$.

try heading over to hitsquad.com.

plenty of software for several os'es, including linux, windows, beos, and amiga :) - peachboy

While linux is improving nicely, it still lacks heavily in any music reporduction,

Actually, there's quite a bit of music production software for Linux.

media interfaces

You mean like Shockwave and MP3s?

business applications.

Such as Excel and Word?

I'd rather pay 199.00 bucks for something that works out of the box and comes with lots of software then several hours downloading, burning iso's and then chasing down the latest versions of all apps waisting a whole entire weekend or business days (thus costing more then the 199.00 XP package).

So would I. Fortunately, if I want to run Linux, I can get a complete set of CD-ROMs from CheapBytes for less than fifteen bucks (including postage) and usually install or upgrade the whole system in about two hours, most of it hands-free. Most of these systems have a reputation for running smoothly "right out of the box."

SLab is an excellent multitrack recorder/mixer. It is not up to snuff with ProTools yet (though no program is on any platform).

Other Linux audio related links include (sorry if some links are bad, I haven't updated this list in awhile):

Multitrack audio recording/mixing:
Ardour
Slab
Snd

Midi Sequencing:
Jazz++
Rosegarden
Brahms (I THINK this is a sequencer)

Sound editing / effects processing:
MixViews
ecasound

Audio creation (synth emulators):
Ultramaster RS-101 and Juno6 CSound
Cecilia (requires Csound)

Notation:
Lilypond
Rosegarden
Mup

Awesome pages with links to everything you wanted to know about Linux audio:
Applications for Open Sound System
Sound and MIDI software for Linux