Some pointers to tools that might enhance your usage of MusE and Linux-Audio in general.

Instead of wasting my time while rewriting what other do better anyway i recommend anyone to have a look at this marvellous webpage:
http://linuxaudioblog.jawebada.de/

little helpers

• countbeats: http://www.kootenay.com/~bvdpoel/music.html, very useful utility if you have a song in your head and want to set MusE to the exact right tempo. Just tap the spacebar and countbeats will tell you the beats per minute.

• ecasound: http://eca.cx, swiss army knife of command line audio applications, very useful if you need to playback, record and/or do some operation in batches.

• jamin: http://jamin.sourceforge.net, a very good mastering package for Linux.

• alsaplayer: http://www.alsaplayer.org, an audio player with support for Jack, very good together with Jamin when you are mastering your piece.

• sweep: http://sweep.sourceforge.net, an audio editing tool you really want to test.

• Timidity: http://www.goice.co.jp/member/mo/timidity/, Midi to Wave converter/player

• Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/, lots of excellent editing tools, available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix and others. Also Uses VST plug-ins

• qjackctl http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net/
• jackd http://jackit.sourceforge.net/
• "JACK Rack" http://pkl.net/~node/software/ another fine utility from Bob Ham
• noteedit http://rnvs.informatik.tu-chemnitz.de/~jan/noteedit/noteedit.html
• ardour http://ardour.org/
• qamix
• jackmix http://roederberg.dyndns.org/~arnold/jackmix/

free softsynthis/samplers

• Linux Sampler
  http://www.linuxsampler.org/
  • Maybe this set of sounds: (not tested) http://www.lionstracs.com/store/giga-soundbank4300-p-130.html
• Specimen, a nice sampler
  http://www.gazuga.net/

linux softsynths:

• MusE internal ones:
  • Vam
  • Organ
  • S1
  • fluid
  • fluidsynth
  • deicsonze
  • simpledrums

• zynaddsubfx

Nice full featured software synthesizers fully compatible with MusE.

http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/

• hydrogen

Drum synthesizer now with even more nice samples.

http://hydrogen.sourceforge.net/?p=features

• aeolus http://users.skynet.be/solaris/linuxaudio/, a very good pipe organ sound generator.
• ams http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/

comercial softsynthis using wine

• http://www.djcj.org/LAU/quicktoots/toots/vst-plugins/
• http://www.djcj.org/LAU/ladspavst/
• http://www.kvr-vst.com/
• http://www.applied-acoustics.com

How to use them with MusE? Read more here: muse_vst