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Vidding Software (Video and Audio)
It is in this category of vidding software that I have the most anxiety about what to recommend. I have looked at all the low cost video editing software that I could find, and I have yet to find the perfect software for vidders at the price point I want. But I do have some great suggestions on Audio software. But anyway, starting with video, here goes.
Video
This software comes with miroVideo DRX card, and it has a nice interface that fairly easy to use (the ToolTips didn't work on mine so that made it a little more challenging, but fine once I got the hang of it). It constructs clips on a storyboard rather than a time line. Herein lies the problem for a vidder, you cannot put the audio track down first and then add video clips above it. You must instead put all your video clips together first and then lay down the audio track on the final output .AVI or cut the song so that you have the relevant song clip attached to each clip. Sounds like a real pain to me and ultimately unworkable if you try to do something tricky like transitions.
The other problem with VideoWave is that since it does not render clips before you do a preview (so you can see what a section of you vid looks like) play back is real choppy in preview mode so its hard to see if it will work they way you think or not. Ultimately, while I thought VideoWave was fine in itself, it won't work for a vidder.
Asymetrix Digital Video Producer 
I really wanted to like this product and in many ways I do. It does some really neat things. It works with a timeline metaphor so you can lay down the video and audio separately. It has great transitions that are easy to use. It has an "object browser" which will list all your clips in order (either as used or alphabetical) and allow you to jump to where they are in the time line. Best of all it comes with everything you need for only $79.00. You can't beat the price. You can download a trial version at http://www.asymetrix.com/products/dvp/
But here my praise ends. The basic problem with the program is that it is slow, very slow. You tell it to move a clip and you wait and wait. At first I thought my system was hanging, but no, it just takes it a really long time to do things. Which would probably not be such a bad thing, except with the preview. There isn't really a preview for this program; it does a build without creating an output file. So you see every frame of every clip go buy in a slow motion fashion. Even that would be livable except there's no audio during the preview. So to see what you've done you have to build the entire vid (a process that can take over an hour) and then see how it looks with the constructed avi. In my view if they could just get this preview problem solved then their system would be unparalleled for the price.
Corel Lumiere
This is a product I have not used; however I have read several reviews of it so I'll tell you what the reviewers say (a good guide to these reviews can be found at http://207.121.184.191/products/content/grids/videosoftware.html and http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/jit/vedit/_open.htm). In general the reviewers agree that Lumiere looks and acts very much like Adobe Premiere the undisputed standard for video editing. But at a list price of about $70 is much more inexpensive. However, the reviewers note several problems. The most important, from my perspective, is the fact that Lumiere is unable to give a real time preview. Like the other products in this review, it does not pre-render transitions so when it hits one (like a dissolve) it slows to a crawl. Also some reviewers have complained about audio synchronization. And all reviewers agree that the capture part of the program does not work at all.
Additionally there is the problem that Corel no longer owns Lumiere, but sold it to an English company called ISMI. They have promised to continue the product and come out with a new version (see their explanation at http://www.formtool.com/Corel/lumiereq&as.html) but one searches in vain for a reference to the product on their web page.
Personal AVI Editor 
This is a shareware product which you may try free for 30 days at www.flickerfree.com. . The program can be registered for $49.00. I found the product interesting but by and large a pain to use. While is uses a timeline metaphor, edits are done by dragging one end of the clip on the timeline. This creates tremendously inaccurate edits. Additionally as it only has one video line, transitions are likewise difficult to plot. This program has the advantage of having a preview that really does work, however it has no way of selectively using the preview so one must watch the entire video each time one previews. That gets tiring after a while. Moreover, I found the program generally workable but somewhat unstable. It continually was unable to find my capture cards codec which means the preview would be blank (though there would be audio). Since transitions take a long time to pre-render and they are done each time preview is run, this meant a lot of time waiting for the computer. We all hope to find the shareware program that will be a good as those on the market, but it is not this one.
I have recently downloaded the trial version of this package from http://www.ulead.com and must say I was very impressed. Currently this package is being sold with a $100 rebate. This puts the total price at about $285 (after rebate). Let me say a couple things about the package. The system metaphor is a timeline and it will do multiple video and audio lines. The preview pre-renders effects and plays in real time after the render. The preview was not quite as fast as Premiere and once you set the in & out points for a clip, there's no easy way to play just that portion like in Premiere that I found, but it is less money. It comes with a large number of effects and it includes audio utilities and titling utilities that are all very nice. You certainly could not go wrong with this package. Additionally, MediaStudio has a couple of things that Premiere doesn’t, it has a neat object window which keeps track of all the clips you've used. It also does multiple undos (a serious failing of Premiere), it also will allow you to easily get back to the project you were working on (unlike Premiere where you have to go digging around your hard disk if you don’t save it in their default directory). All in all this is a great package.
I only had a couple of real problems. Occasionally the thing would get stuck and not be able to play the preview. This was fixed by shutting the program down and restarting it (a small matter ultimately) but it was sort of annoying. Also in the trial version I had, transitions were obscured by a large red X. I think my capture card may be partly to blame (Ulead claims that any video out will be accompanied by an X though not in preview mode, but I'm not sure the trial version could tell the difference with my card) but it made judging the quality of the transitions iffy. By the way, the rumor I heard that you had no sound during the preview was entirely false, you get great sound. Again, those small things aside, this is a great package and may be even more stable in the full (as opposed to the trial) version.
Adobe Premiere http://www.adobe.com/newsfeatures/tryadobe/main.html
Finally, I come to the granddaddy of them all, Adobe Premiere. This is, as I stated above, the undisputed standard to which all other video editing programs are compared. Its capture program works well, it uses a timeline metaphor that allows you to use 99 audio and video tracks. It has great transitions, which are easily used. The preview pre-renders transitions once (unless than change) and plays the preview in real time. All in all I found this program a dream to work with and would never use anything else. That said, I will say that the program could stand some improvement in its audio tools, and creating titles is a difficult and counter-intuitive process. However, these are really minor problems. The real problem with Premiere is the price. The program lists $795.00. I have seen it at DV Direct listed for $495.00. Additionally, if you are connected academically, I had one academic reseller give me a price of $220.00. It certainly is worth that. Also if you already own something like Photoshop or another Adobe product, you have a copy of Adobe Premiere LE. This is a limited edition of the regular product and you can upgrade to their full and latest version for $199.00.
At bottom, though, here is the one place where I would recommend not skimping. I've tried the low cost options and they're just not enough. You can, however, see for yourself. Adobe offers a trial version of Premiere, which you can download. http://www.adobe.com/newsfeatures/tryadobe/main.html - premiere You can also download a couple of others that I've mentioned. Try them and see what you think. This is my advice (this has changed from previous versions of this web page), I currently use Adobe Premiere 4.2, but the new version of Premiere 5.0 is so problematic for low cost vidders (see my warnings) that I can no longer recommend Adobe. Instead I would recommend Ulead's Media Studio Pro 5.0. It is a full-featured package which solves some of the problems that Adobe had in 4.2. Download the trial version of Media Studio first at http://www.ulead.com, try it and see how it works on your system. I think that if you go with Ulead and you will end up with a great package.
Audio
In the world of audio shareware fills the void. Sure you can spend a mint on some high tech audio super program, but for my money shareware is where it's at. Basically as a vidder you have two problems, first you need to capture stuff from you CD player, and second, it would be nice to capture stuff from something unconnected to your computer, like your stereo. Then, maybe, you want to spruce it up a little, change the volume, take out hiss and stuff like that. Have I got the programs for you -- read on.
CD-DA Extractor 1.13
Interestingly the hardest part of getting music on your computer is getting it off your CD. You'd think that would be the easiest, after all, your computer already knows how to play CDs. But oddly enough getting a computer to record the songs off of that CD is extraordinarily problematic. I've looked at dozens of programs and they almost all are worthless. What I turned to then, was a program that didn't try to record the songs, but could take the CD data and convert it to .WAV file that the computer would deal with. The program that I found that works the best (and easiest) is CD-DA Extractor 1.13. Its got a nice windows interface, it works through Windows 95 (instead of DOS like some programs...shudder) and it produces a great sounding WAV file. You can get a description of this program download it from http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/programs/CD-DA_Extractor_win95/ This comes off the Shareware Music Machine Site a great place for music shareware.
Goldwave
Ok, so you got your CD's ready to go, but as it turns out the perfect song is on an old Bob Seger tape that a friend made you in high school. You've got to have that song (Sam Becket is a ramblin' gamblin' man), so what do you do? Enter the little dynamo called Goldwave. This little gadget will record anything plugged into you line-in jack on your sound card. Plug in your stereo or 8-track player to there and sweet music is only a click away. You probably will need to make a trip to Radio Shack for the right cables. I have a headphone adapter plug that lets me plug in my Walkman headphones to my stereo, and I just plug in a cable to that and wham! I've got George Michael in stereo for my vid. You can get Goldwave at http://www.goldwave.com/
But that's not all! Not only is Goldwave a great little recording utility, but you can also modify your sound files using Goldwave. You can increase the volume (a constant problem) take out hiss (that high school Seger song's gonna need that), and a bunch of audio stuff I don't understand but I'm sure would be very impressive if I did. Best of all, you can register it for only $30.
OK so now you are set you've got your computer up to speed, your capture card, your editing software and your audio software. Now go forth and make digital vids, experience ease and enjoyment you've never thought possible, all for the price of one good S-VHS machine. You can thank me at the next con.
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