Summer Coding 2010 proposal - Fedora Musicians' Guide

This Is a Draft
This is simply a draft of the proposal. It contains many vague/omitted/poorly-formatted sections.

About Me

Contact Information

• Name: Christopher Antila
• Email Address: crantila from GMail
• Wiki and IRC Username: crantila
• Primary Language: English
• Location: Ontario, Canada
• Working Hours: about 17:00 to 2:00 UTC, but flexible

Why I Want to Work in the Open-Source Community

My previous open-source contributions are limited to bug reports for Fedora, Gentoo, and KDE. I have contemplated larger contributions in the past, but the immense time commitment is forbidding for students during an academic term. When I've been on summer "holidays," my time has been similarly consumed by a paying job, and the work required to maintain musical skills. I did not want to get involved in something that would later be left unfinished. Fedora Summer Coding will allow me to set aside the time that I would otherwise spend at a paying job.

The motivation to contribute to the open-source community stems from my belief that its values are essential to the well-being of human societies. The Fedora Project is becoming increasingly adept at marketing this philosophy, and the Four Fs summarize that point. The "freedom" and "friends" Fs are especially important to me: when you have something, you should be able to do whatever you want with it; and advancements made by one entity should be actively shared with others. This is how complex systems work: small contributions combine to make something quite unlike the parts. It would be impossible without sharing resources. Even proprietary advancements build on the readily-available work of others!

My particular project proposal, the Fedora Musicians' Guide, combines my musical abilities with my linguistic and technological abilities. Musicians are used to paying large sums of money for proprietary software that is extremely complex. Their creative work can be limited because they lack sufficient time to learn how to use their tools effectively. Although the initial learning curve can be steeper, there exist open-source tools to equal anything in the closed-source realm. My goal with this guide is to help friends and colleagues overcome that learning curve. They will save money, and be able to freely share their work. Even if they do not choose to switch to Fedora, this guide will inspire the use of open-source music tools for their chosen platform.

Also see my wiki profile page, available here.???????????????????

Proposed Schedule

Week 1 (24 - 30 May):

Week 2 (31 May - 6 June):

Week 3 (7 - 13 June):

Week 4 (14 - 20 June):

Week 5 (21 - 27 June):

Week 6 (28 June - 4 July): Week of Canada Day:

Week 7 (5 - 11 July): MIDTERM - bulk of the writing must be completed

Week 8 (12 - 18 July): testing and revising

Week 9 (19 - 25 July): testing and revising

Week 10 (26 July - 1 August): testing and revising

Week 11 (2 - 8 August): Week of Another Long Weekend: testing and revising / re-writing into Publican?

Week 12 (9 August): Project Completion.

What Research Needs to Be Done

Precedents

• read the Fedora User Guide and Installation Guide for hints
• find out what is already well-documented & link it in
• see:
  • http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/packages.html
  • http://linux-sound.org/one-page.html
  • http://linux-sound.org/plugins.html
  • http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/ e.g.
  • http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/en/chapter-0.html
  • http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/supplemental/zyn/zyn.html
  • http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/tutorials/supplemental/hydrogen/
  • http://electronaut.linuxgamers.net/~lsd/music/synthtute/part01_overview.ogv
  • http://orford.org/assets/jack.php
  • http://www.linuxjournal.com/taxonomy/term/28
  • https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AudioCreation
  • http://www.passback.org.uk/music/fedora-music-intro/
  • and more?

PlanetCCRMA

• read the Planet CCRMA documentation, which will be included basically as-is (algorithms-wise, at least?!)
• will there be a timely release for F13? F14?

Kernels (optional)

• is it necessary to apply an RT patch to a standard Fedora kernel?
• how to compile one's own kernel
• how to compile an RT-patched kernel
• what will cause poor audio performance?

Tasks/Programs

• find out which tasks I want to use (synthesizer, recording/mixer, notated scores, aural skills)
  • http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/packages.html (including "Roadmap")
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_audio_software
  • http://sound.condorow.net/
  • http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/apps/start
  • http://linuxaudio.org/
  • https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/AudioCreation
  • distros
    • http://www.64studio.com/ (!)
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Studio (http://ubuntustudio.org/) -- Wikipedia page has a list of included applications (!)
    • http://www.dynebolic.org/ (!)
    • http://proaudio.tuxfamily.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
    • JAD: (jacklab.net) -- wherever it went
    • http://openartisthq.org/
    • http://puredyne.goto10.org/
  • categories
    • graphical/text audio programming: gAlan, Ingen, jMax, OpenSoundWorld, Pure Data, ChucK, Csound, Nyquist, SuperCollider
    • DJ tools: Digital-Scratch, DJPlay, Mixxx, TerminatorX, UltraMixer, xwax
    • drum machines: csDrummer, Hydrogen, Jackbeat
    • recording, editing, mastering: Ardour, Audacity, Buzztard (synthesis?), Gnome Wave Cleaner, Jokosher, LMMS (Linux MultiMedia Studio), MusE, NoteEdit, MuseScore (not in CCRMA?), Renoise (DAW), ReZound (like Audacity?), Qtractor (DAW), Rosegaren (DAW??), seq24 (loop-based MIDI sequencer), Sweep ("digital audio editor"), mscore
    • sound servers (?): Phonon, JACK, PulseAudio, NAS(?)
    • patch bays: Qjackctl, Patchage [ do both if possible ]
    • synthesizers: FluidSynth (with QSynth), Bristol (organ synthesis), TiMidity++ (?), ZynAddSubFX?
    • effects processing: LADSPA, DSSI?, LinuxDSP?, Jack Rack
    • no: format transcoding
    • no: radio broadcasting
    • no: radio listening
    • no: tablature, guitar, fretted instrument software
    • music study software: GNU Solfege, Javtronome, multi-metronome, GTick,
  • find out which programs to use for the tasks
  • find out which specific tasks will require specific instructions

What Testing May Need to Be Done

• test on i686, x64, and PowerPC G4(??? this would be PlanetCCRMA-less)
• test in KDE, GNOME, and XFCE
• test in VirtualBox virtual machines?
• test with single and multiple sound cards
• test with USB and FireWire sound cards
• test efficacy with "computer experts" and "non-experts"

Currently, I'm thinking that testing with equipment and architectures and equipment should be tested during the writing process, so that equipment-specific information can be incorporated to the text. Testing with various user-groups would be done subsequent to this.

About my Project

• Name: Fedora Musicians' Guide
• Idea Page: Summer Coding 2010 ideas - Fedora Musicians' Guide