max/live question

[accdntly]

why should i buy max? do i need msp? (was the msp question stupid?) my goal is to program sporadic, generative sequences of samples/sounds. im very curious of eno's generative music concepts and would like to apply myself to this. im a huge fan of gaiser and b. pronsato and i know they use max.

ps- is the application really that difficult to learn?

[plaster]

it's not diffucult if you know the basics of synthesis. actually just the basics can save you alot of wandering. imo, most people think max is hard because they never took the time to learn modular synthesis. it's like reading a book..you'll never manage to get the point if you don't know what letters mean.

[keithkemp]

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68184
http://cycling74.com/products/M

[Toob]

im a huge fan of gaiser and b. pronsato and i know they use max.

I know this is an old thread, but do they? And how can you incorporate Max/MSP in Live?

[STML]

I really like Noatikl (http://www.intermorphic.com/tools/noatikl/index.html).

It's written by the same guys who wrote Koan for Thomas Dolby way back. Really stable with great options for customization.

[oblioblioblio]

And how can you incorporate Max/MSP in Live?

Via midi and audio routing. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.

About max in general, it's a really fascinating concept to me as an electronic musician, but I think it can be quite to get your head around. I haven't had much experience in soft ware environments like this before and it has been a lot of work even just to scratch the surface of max.

Knowing modular synthesis has been helpful in some respects, but a lot of max operates at a different level (event processing)... a way of handling, distributing and processing information that isn't at all similar to an audio chain in the classic sense.

I think it's definitely possible to learn, but it's definitely not worth underestimating the amount of time it will take to learn properly.

I think Max is pretty good environment to get to grips with this stuff though, the tutorials are great, and the help system is genius (for every object there is a help file which is a max patch itself, which demonstrates the function of the object, and provides links to related objects).

[livecollective]

I personally use max/msp standalone to create textures or maybe a fat bassline or kick.


For creating a random generator of sound, its probably one of the best tools on the market. Integration with ableton will further as they start to work more closely with Cycling 74.

From what I have heard, soon ableton and max/msp will flow effortlessly with eachother.

[s.k.]

a lot of max operates at a different level (event processing)... a way of handling, distributing and processing information that isn't at all similar to an audio chain in the classic sense.

max operates at the so-called scheduler rate (miliseconds), but MSP operates at audio rate and thats where its power comes from.

btw ableton live was initially a max/msp patch