Modular software & programmingMaxMSP, Reaktor, Pure Data, Jeskola BUZZ, and other modular programs. Any questions relating to these programs (patching, favorite ensembles) should be posted in this forum.
Hey I just tought it would be nice for everyone to share their ways of using Max, I know some people are not willing to share their trade secrets, so let's just not get into deep technicalities.
I mainly use Max as a way to program complex midi messages that are assigned to macros in Live.
everything else is just too complex for me (synth programing and effect processing)
I have not yet integrated it into recordings, but I use it for a few things.
1) Making audio plugins for effecting audio, which can be used to resample files in max or max4live. These are fft fx and sampling effects (like stutters/grainshifters/delays, etc.)
2) Prototyping/designing interface and function of sampling effects. I am trying to develop some hardware stutter effects and its far easier to try out designs in max than in hardware.
3) Doing live visuals and other sorts of video art, which may not have been what you had in mind.
I don't really use max, just the runtime for some monome applications, but i use puredata. Mainly for control routing for touchOSC interfaces and that sort of thing. i haven't had the patience to make any sort of synth or effects.
It wasn't anything fancy, but you don't need anything fancy really. I can upload a runtime if anyone's interested. Other than that I made a simple synth controlled by the computer keyboard, and I'm sort of still working on a utility to automate sample edits.
This sounds interesting. Automate them how? You talking about live or rendered editing?
I want to do something for editing, but I also have a live version. I need to work on the scaling of MIDI CC to it, as CC only have 128 values and this could use a lot more. I can use it with a mouse and it's not a problem, maybe I can find a neat controller to use with it.
Last edited by I/O_Madness; 24-07-2012 at 10:19 PM..
This sounds interesting. Automate them how? You talking about live or rendered editing?
It works by having a loop that repeats indefinitely, then you can control the start point, end point, and speed. I have a live version set up, although I'd like to rewrite it with gen~ as with just max it's limited to ms segments rather than sample segments. It works alright though. I was working on a rendering version of it as well, which I'd like to do more work on, as I enjoy working like that. I like to have every movement defined in the program, though I also appreciate the need to be able to mess around with it in a more hands on way. i prefer defining movements in a general way.
I use max for loads of things really. Generally I try and make sure everything I make can be used live but that doesnt always work out...
The main thing I have been working on lately is a 4 voice sample player, with a number of effects included, designed to be used for live performance and loosely based on the korg kaoss pad. I cant post links yet but if anyone is interested you can just google "skaoss"
I also like to use it to create algorithmic programs, various effects and sequencers, and recently created a large sequencer program which allows you to arrange/sequence patterns of smaller sequencer patches... this is very much still a work in progress though....
My most polished patch takes the launchpads 8 rows and turns them into 8 "sliders" that can be mapped to anything in Ableton Live, includes LED feedback, adjustable interpolation, and you can have 4 instances loaded up per Launchpad thus extending the control functionality of the Launchpad.
I do live visual generation with Jitter for VJing or audio/visual performance.
I use it to get data from an Arduino that's reading touch sensors on my bass to control processing in Live.
I made a huge patch that analyzes incoming audio, and resynthesizes it based on the eight most prominent frequency bands. This also contains a step sequencer type thing to control the eight voices. Includes LED feedback on the launchpad.
Other various sample fuckery, sound mangling things. It's rad to the MAX (get it?)
I do tend to laugh at people that make synths/drum machines with it. It is for making things that aren't available/professionally made.
Sometimes you need a program like those that are freely available but that do something a certain way that other programs don't, or have a certain feature that others don't. Plus programming everything yourself is neat.
I do tend to laugh at people that make synths/drum machines with it. It is for making things that aren't available/professionally made.
Have to agree with I/O_Madness on this, just because there are drum machines and synths available doesnt mean that they do everything you want them to.... in fact if you think about it, if any drum machine/synth was actually able to do everything you could possibly want it to do then surely it would have made all other similar plugins etc redundant...
there is also a lot of benefit to be gained by trying to recreate existing effects, synths, and sequencers-trying to reverse engineer these things is a great way to learn how they work!
Also those other programs aren't programmed in Max/MSP, different methods of making it work are required. Max/MSP is a PROGRAMMING environment, saying it isn't worth trying to make a drum machine or sequencer in it is like saying it's not worth making a hip hop song in any audio program because people already came up with hip hop, or it's not worth writing a song about a feeling because other songs have been written already.
Programs don't all work one way. You need to find out how to describe what is happening with the language you're using, which allows for you to understand more of what's going on.
