My career trajectory has always been flat and lying on the ground, apart from a tiny little blip where it rose a few centimetres above the ground as it passed over the twig that was art school. It has fallen down a hole in the ground now, and doesn't seem to be coming out again.

[begin] (fluxbox)
[separator]
[nop](ScrapYard)
[separator]
[exec] (XTerm) {xterm}
[exec] (Nedit) {nedit-nc}
[exec] (IceWeasel) {iceweasel}
[exec] (HTop) {xterm -e htop}
[exec] (AlsaMixer){xterm -e /usr/local/bin/alsamixer}
[separator]
[submenu] (Audio Production){}
[separator]
[nop](Control)
[exec] (QjackCtl){/usr/local/bin/qjackctl}
[exec] (Patchage){/usr/local/bin/patchage}
[exec] (Jack Mixer) {/usr/local/bin/jack_mixer}
[separator]
[exec] (Jack Keyboard){/usr/local/bin/jack-keyboard}
[separator]
[nop](Sequencers)
[exec] (MuSe){/usr/local/bin/muse}
[exec] (Seq24) {/usr/local/bin/seq24}
[separator]
[nop](DAWs)
[exec] (Ardour2){/usr/local/bin/ardour2}
[separator]
[nop](Drum Machines)
[exec] (Hydrogen){/usr/local/bin/hydrogen}
[exec] (Jack Beat){/usr/local/bin/jackbeat}
[separator]
[nop](Synthesis)
[exec] (Yoshimi -j){/usr/local/bin/yoshimi -j}
[exec] (Yoshimi -a){/usr/local/bin/yoshimi -a}
[exec] (WhySynth){/usr/local/bin/jack-dssi-host whysynth.so}
[exec] (Hextor){/usr/local/bin/jack-dssi-host hexter.so}
[exec] (Mx44.1){/usr/local/bin/mx44}
[exec] (Phasex){/usr/local/bin/phasex}
[exec] (Ingen Engine){xterm -e /usr/local/bin/ingen -e}
[exec] (Ingen GUI){/usr/local/bin/ingen -g}
[separator]
[nop](Samplers)
[exec] (FreeCycle){/usr/local/bin/freecycle}
[exec] (SooperLooper){/usr/local/bin/slgui}
[separator]
[nop](Effects)
[exec] (Calf Host){/usr/local/bin/calfjackhost}
[exec] (Rakarrack){/usr/local/bin/rakarrack}
[exec] (Jack Rack){/usr/local/bin/jack-rack}
[exec] (Guitarix){/usr/local/bin/guitarix}
[separator]
[end]
[separator]
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)
[end]

http://www.jwm-art.net/art/audio/musys2_termye.mp3

I have installed Debian testing on my computer in a spare partition on the hard drive. I was using Debian stable but now I have got broadband for the 1st time in my life, I can download stuff like an operating system - for free mind.

However my mind is not free at all, for I have taken it upon myself to not taint the system with any pre-packaged software which might output audio, or that depends on another piece of software which outputs audio, or generally any piece of software bearing some relationship with sound.

This is because I wish this system - let's say it is *based* upon Debian Testing - to be used for audio production. To this end, I have taken it upon my self to build every single application and library from source that I use to produce audio. This starts at the core of the operating system with the kernel. The Linux kernel must be patched for real time pre-emption so the audio is given sufficient priority (over other non-audio processes) to prevent it stuttering when system load is high.

Note however, when building the kernel we leave out all the audio drivers except the check-box _indicating_we_want_audio_support_ on the system because we'll build that support elsewhere. We download the source code from the ALSA project and build the library and the driver and the utils and the tools.

I could bore you with more information, I'd love to, but I'd rather be doing other things so I'll post some pictures instead:




Oh, and an MP3 of the racket above system was producing at the time I took this pictures:
http://www.jwm-art.net/art/audio/musys2_termye.mp3