Not that I don’t enjoy my nouvel emploi as bloody demagogue, but I thought I’d post a few about what I’m actually hammering on while noone’s looking:
-
Tek is a sequencer, sampler, and occasional plugin host inspired by Ableton Live, implemented for the Linux terminal, in poorly formatted Rust. The idea “why don’t I build my own DAW” came to me over a decade ago. The project was prototyped in 02024-06, and has been inching back and forth in the general direction of a stable release ever since.
-
Perch (c.k.a. Taggart) is an audio metadata editor based on the same UI stuff as Tek. I started working on this at the beginning of 02025-03, when I realized I want to do a Faircamp for someone but can’t be arsed to tag all the files with existing tools. This looks like the soonest-finishable one of the bunch.
-
Vestal is a preservation effort for VST2 soundware. Conceived in 02024-10, and first prototyped in 02025-02, it’s my first ever exploration of the Windows platform internals and some of the same techniques used for cracking software. there is an entire generation of soundware in the VST2 format, yet it’s officially abandonware and exists in legal limbo, and while other backwards compatibilty projects exist for the format, they are not comprehensible to me.
-
Tengri is the foundational UI framework for Tek and Perch/Taggart (and, in the future, for Vestal). Tengri wraps the excellent TUI library Ratatui – but with a twist: making it easier to port apps to GUI toolkits. Wonder if I’ll ever get to that one. Anyway, it gives me something to work with which is not a browser, and otherwise stays out of the way.
So there. I post occasional updates to these projects at stateful being (@unspeaker@mastodon.social) - Mastodon – come give us a follow.
I’m a big believer of thinking in public – including, nay, especially of silly thoughts! – and will probably post some more detailed updates on here as these weird tools either mature or become good for something.
Meantime, take a look, share a thought, lend a hand! They’re all available under the AGPL3 for whatever that’s worth. I build ‘em primarily for my own self, with the intention of applying them to making actual music for others’ selves – but if they make someone happy in their own right, all the better!
