What multimedia applications do you use?

Thought this would be a good topic to really get this forum rolling.

What Applications do you use, and are there specific reasons you like them?
What's your level of experience/expertise with multimedia?
How do you use them in your design work?

(and anything else you'd care to add.)

I use Adobe Fireworks for nearly all of my graphics work. Comparing it to Photoshop really isn't fair, since the two are intended for very different purposes, so for that reason, I won't make the comparison here.

Fireworks is all about rapid graphic design, primarily geared towards vector and web graphics. I use it for creating web templates and prototyping new site designs. I also use it for very basic image manipulation such as resizing, format conversion, and color correction.

I think the biggest reason I swear by it is because I've been using it for so long and have become quite proficient with it. I was worried when Adobe bought out Macromedia because I feared they'd eliminate Fireworks in favor of Photoshop, but thankfully they kept it.

I also use Dreamweaver from time to time to make updates to some [very] older sites that I maintain for customers. All newer sites, however, require nothing more than Notepad2.

I use to play around with Flash a number of years ago (before MX, I believe), but soon lost interest once I got into software development.

Back when I worked at the local tv station doing editing stuff we used Avid Media Composer. That program is really cool, but a bit pricey. There is a free version called Avid Free, but you only get one or two video tracks and I think one or two audio tracks for editing. We had one machine with the Adreneline a/v co-processor hardware, about a $55000 computer...but man was it sweet! That puppy had dual 23 inch monitors.

Then for the other special effects stuff we used Boris Red, which is basically just a titling and transition type of thing, but it does a whole lot more too that I never got a chance to learn to do before I quit. We did some animations with flash, but I never did any of that either. I did mostly just videography and commercial editing and voice over recording.

I use ffmpeg & lame.
ffmpeg is a command-line video tool & lame is the same but for MP3.

I don't get into production, I mainly convert, interactify, & distribute when I deal with it at all.

I use Quicktime Pro, primarily for taking Terragen animation renders and converting them to a movie. I particularly like the H.264 compression in Quicktime.

For converting to FLV I use Macromedia Flash 8 Video Encoder. Again here, I am quite fond of the On2VP6. Obviously I use Flash and am starting to get quite familiar with the FLV playback component.

My primary interest though in this forum is that I have the Adobe Production Suite 2.0 which includes: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Encore DVD, Photoshop and Illustrator. At best I'm a beginner with the Suite (except for Photoshop and Illustrator). I've done some basic editing but really need to master it because my next redo of my company website will be media driven.

Sony acid pro 6.0

I use this mainly for my audio editing, The reason I use it is becuase it is very simple to use for new users ( like myself ) also it has many features which are essential for sound editing.

- should this thread be a sticky?

When you do really start learning it then feel free in posting links. Infact, i might just create a topic with good tutorial links here sometime until such time as there being tutorials created for mutlimedia on Ozzu.

I've been meaning to start learning Adobe Premier Pro for a couple of years but never quite got round to it. Infact, the only vidoe editing software i had been using a bit is the Windows Movie Maker software already pre-installed on any Windows XP (and beyond) machine.

Other than that i've not been using alot of multimedia software specifically for animation or video editing. Image editing on the other hand is another story and for another forum.

I don't tend to do many multimedia projects but when I have I use Orion Platinum, Audacity for sound and Adobe products for images.

ahem. Photoshop... I need to get used to it first before learning other options. Maybe my next one will be Flash Pro & video encoder

I use Audacity for audio editing, Dreamweaver 8 for web sites (though I keep Notepad2 around for quick edits and fixes), Flash 8 for... well, Flash (and some drawing), and Paint.NET for the the majority of my image and photo editing (though I keep the Gimp for some more complicated things, Inkscape for some vector stuff, and InfranView for viewing and really quick edits). Depending on what I'm doing, I occasionally use a Genius PenSketch 6x8 graphics tablet.

I'm not really an expert with Flash (I'm still learning, and I've got a long way to go), and I only really play with audio for my own amusement (and that of others). I'm much better with images and web sites.

Some of my choices were influenced by the fact they they were free, but since then I've become very attached to them - I wouldn't switch out Paint.NET for Photoshop any day - so I probably wouldn't switch even if I could.

*small side note gang - we all use a lot of apps for our digital work, but remember this one is for multi-media, not graphics (per se).

Its cool to see this forum up and running. hopefully it will get some good traffic. I frequently use (In addition to the usual static image software):
After Effects (motion design)
Cinema 4D / Max (3d - still and moving)
Final Cut Studio (non-linear video editing)

I'm not a sound engineer so I don't touch Reason, Soundtrack or Soundbooth very often but I can usually get them to do what I need.

Some good tutorial sites to tide you all over:
http://www.lynda.com
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_after_effects/
http://www.graymachine.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=4&Itemid=31
http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html
http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/adobeaftereffects

Photoshop works very well

Capturing/Converting/Retouching
Canopus ProCoder 3, Cinema Craft Encoder SP (I love this program - a business I worked for had a license and when support stopped for it they discontinued their use, if I hadn't been in the right place at the right time I wouldn't have this baby as it's extremely pricey), TMPGEnc Plus 2.5, AviSynth, VirtualDub v1.7.7 (yes it's old - it's also the best one) w/ Huffyuv 2.2.0 codec (another good one is PICVideo M-JPEG 3 VfW - they're both lossless codecs, and provide wicked compression if you take the quality down from 20 to 19), Tunebite and Audacity.

Editing
Adobe Premiere, particleIllusion 3.0, Abrosoft FantaMorph

I think that's it

never mind that... decided to get a google definition... have no idea how legit it is though. Although we got digital art and drawing forum and photography forum for still images and things of that nature...

I use MAGIX Music Maker 12 Deluxe Edition. I created some music on it already. Some people here got a sample of it

It's a simple to use program and you can literally create your own music with it's own animation. You can even record your own voice on it It costs like $50 though... not bad in my opinion far what it does at that price