Getting started with Max – for beginners
Level: Beginners curious about programming
Get started with interactive audio and MIDI, and discover the possibilities of the Max environment. In this series of recorded videos, you will learn how to manipulate audio, MIDI, virtual instruments and program your own interactive canvas.
Connect together Max’s building blocks to create unexpected results, and use them in your music productions. Through a series of exercises you will engage in the pragmatic creation of a basic MIDI sequencer device that features a wealth of musical manipulation options.
Learn from guided examples.
This on demand content aims to enable you to work with Max confidently on your own.
Learning outcomes:
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Understand the Max environment
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Connect building blocks together and work with data
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Master the user interface
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Work with your MIDI instruments
Requirements
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A computer and internet connection
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A good working knowledge of computer systems
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Access to a copy of Max 8
About the workshop leader
Phelan Kane is a Berlin & London based music producer, engineer, artist, developer and educator. For over twenty years he has been active in both the music industry and the contemporary music education sector, with a focus on electronic music and alternative bands.
He specialises in sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development.
He is currently running the electronic music record label Meta Junction Recordings and the audio software development company Meta Function, which specialize in Max for Live devices releasing the M4L synth Wave Junction in partnership with Sonicstate.
Generative Music Tools: Turing Machine – LIVE Session
Level: Intermediate
There are a broad array of techniques musicians can use to generate music in Max. One such process involves taking inspiration from Alan Turing’s early work on proto-computers, in particular the notion of a tape with data being displayed on it.
This workshop will provide you with the information to construct such a generative device, a ‘Turing Machine’, to supplement your compositional practice.
Session Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this session you will be able to:
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Understand the fundamentals of a Turing Machine in a musical context.
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Patch together a generative process using randomisation and counters.
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Build a functional UI to tweak different aspects of the generative process in real time.
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Use the finished device to both generate music through MIDI and control broader parameters of software instruments.
Session Study Topics
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Turing machines, generative music.
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Random processes: drunken walks and probability.
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Visual design in Max
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Composition through MIDI and software instrument manipulation.
Requirements
- A computer and internet connection
- Access to a copy of Max 7 or 8 (i.e. trial or full license)
About the workshop leader
Samuel Pearce-Davies is a composer, performer, music programmer and Max hacker living in Cornwall, UK.
With a classical music background, it was his introduction to Max/MSP during undergraduate studies at Falmouth University that sparked Sam’s passion for music programming and algorithmic composition.
Going on to complete a Research Masters in computer music, Sam is now studying a PhD at Plymouth University in music-focused AI.
Getting started with Max: March Series
Dates & times:
Session 1: Wednesday 3rd March – 6pm GMT / 7pm CET / 10am PST / 1pm EST
Session 2: Wednesday 10th March – 6pm GMT / 7pm CET / 10am PST / 1pm EST
Session 3: Wednesday 17th March – 6pm GMT / 7pm CET / 11am PST* / 2pm EST*
Session 4: Wednesday 24th March – 6pm GMT / 7pm CET / 11am PST* / 2pm EST*
*Note PST & EST time-zones ONLY: Wednesdays 17th & 24th March time-zone change. Instead of 10AM PST & 1PM PST, there is a +1hr change. So the sessions begin at 11AM PST & 2PM EST
Overview
Get started with interactive audio and MIDI, and discover the possibilities of the Max environment. In this series of workshops, you will learn how to manipulate audio, MIDI, virtual instruments and program your own interactive canvas.
Connect together Max’s building blocks to create unexpected results, and use them in your music productions. Through a series of guided exercises you will engage in the pragmatic creation of a basic MIDI sequencer device that features a wealth of musical manipulation options.
Learn from guided examples and live interactions with teachers and other participants.
This series of online workshops aims to enable you to work with Max confidently on your own.
Sessions overview
Session 1 – Understand the Max environment
Session 2 – Connect building blocks together and work with data
Session 3 – Master the user interface
Session 4 – Work with your MIDI instruments
Requirements
- A computer and internet connection
- A good working knowledge of computer systems
- Access to a copy of Max 8
About the workshop leader
Phelan Kane is a Berlin & London based music producer, engineer, artist, developer and educator. For over twenty years he has been active in both the music industry and the contemporary music education sector, with a focus on electronic music and alternative bands.
He specialises in sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development.
He is currently running the electronic music record label Meta Junction Recordings and the audio software development company Meta Function, which specialize in Max for Live devices releasing the M4L synth Wave Junction in partnership with Sonicstate.
DIY Electronics – Introduction to digital instrument design
During these workshops you will prototype your own instrument (hardware and software) using an Arduino microcontroller, sensors, and Max or Pure Data.
Registration includes access to all sessions.
You will be introduced to the basics of working with an Arduino microcontroller and interfacing it with a computer software in order to generate, control and manipulate sound. We will use open source hardware and software (Arduino / Max or Pure Data) to prototype an instrument using buttons, switches, potentiometers and sensors. We will start by looking at the basics such as setting up Arduino and running sketches, analog vs digital pins, Arduino programming environment, basic electronic, etc. From there we will get a bit more advanced by looking at the serial communication, connecting sensors to Arduino, reading and values from sensors, and controlling sound parameters with them.
Requirements
Beginner with notions of programming. All participants are required to have a computer with pre-installed Arduino IDE and Max or PureData.
Downloads:
- arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/
- Pure Data: http://puredata.info/downloads
- Max: https://www.cycling74.com
- Useful but not essential: wire cutters & strippers, multimeters, soldering irons
Components (not included, please order):
- Arduino board + USB cable. If your laptop doesn’t have a USB port please make sure you have an adapter! USB cable not included!
- Breadboard
- Jumper wires
- Resistors (1k)
- Resistors (10k)
- Light dependent resistor a.k.a. LDR a.k.a. light sensor:
- 10k potentiometer
- Mini buttons
Kacper Ziemianin a.k.a. ‘Ctrl Freq’ has background in classical music and a lot of adventures in modern sound and music. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sonic Arts from Middlsex University, London and Master’s degree in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Netherlands.
Instrument maker, sound designer, circuit bender, vagabond, improviser, producer, audio-hacker, nomad, radio presenter, activist, workshop leader, squatter. His audio installations and sounds have been shown/played in numerous places around, as well as outside Europe.
Currently based in the Hague, NL working as a freelance instrument designer and performer as well as teacher of DIY electronics. His latest endeavor, the ‘LightSeq’ has received funding from Stimuleringsfonds NL and won an award at an international electronic music festival ‘Radical dB’ in Zaragoza, Spain.
Follow Kacper on YouTube