Building Graphical User Interfaces in M4L and Max – On demand

Level: Intermediate

MaxforLive allows users to develop their own devices for use in composition, performance and beyond. Creating a graphical user interface that complements the device is one of the crucial development stages that can give a device its personality. In this workshop you will learn how to create a custom user interface for a M4L device, including a native Ableton Live style to a completely personalised theme.

Session Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

Identify different styles of user interface
Explore and configure Live/Max UI objects
Create custom dials and sliders
Construct UI systems that synchronise with Ableton Live
Create pop-up UI windows

Session Study Topics

UI objects and their properties
User designed GUI objects
Translating Ableton Live’s theme system
Window properties and embedded visual patches

Requirements

A computer and internet connection
A web cam and mic
A Zoom account
Access to a copy of Live 10/11 & Max 8 (i.e. trial or full license)

About the workshop leader

Mark Towers is an Ableton Certified Trainer and a lecturer in music technology at Leicester College. He specialises in Max for Live, as well as working with Isotonik Studios to create unique and creative devices for music production and performance such as the Arcade Series.

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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

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.

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Getting started with Max – LIVE Session 3rd Edition(all Thursdays in February)

This workshop series was added as the other two series planned in January and February were sold out.

LIVE Sessions on Thursdays 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th February 2021, 6pm GMT

Get started with interactive audio and video, and discover the possibilities of the Max environment. In this series of workshops, you will learn how to manipulate audio, MIDI, samples, oscillators and program your own interactive canvas.

Connect together Max’s building blocks to create unexpected results, and use them in your music productions.

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.

Session overview

Session 1 – Understand the Max environment

Session 2 – Connect building blocks together

Session 3 – Master the user interface

Session 4 – Work with your MIDI devices

Taught by Phelan Kane

He specialises in sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development.

Requirements:

A computer and internet connection
A good working knowledge of computer systems
Access to a copy of Max 8

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Getting started with Max – LIVE Session 2nd Edition

-SOLD OUT- Head over to to this link for Thursday sign ups Getting started with Max – LIVE Series #3 – Music Hackspace

Session 1: Saturday 6th February 2021

Session 2: Saturday 13th February 2021

Session 3: Saturday 20th February 2021

Session 4: Saturday 27th February 2021

Level: Beginners curious about programming

Getting started with Max – LIVE Session

Connect together Max’s building blocks to create unexpected results, and use them in your music productions.

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.

Session overview

Session 1 – Understand the Max environment

Session 2 – Connect building blocks together

Session 3 – Master the user interface

Session 4 – Work with your MIDI devices

Requirements:

A computer and internet connection
A good working knowledge of computer systems
Access to a copy of Max 8

About the workshop leader

He specialises in sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development.

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Getting Started with Max For Live – On demand

Difficulty level: Beginner

In this series of workshops you will explore the Max For Live (M4L) ecosystem, empowering you to utilise them in your own music.

Following these workshops you’ll be able build your own devices in the Max For Live environment!

Ableton Live Suite is a powerful and creative DAW.

Max For Live extends the vast range of creative opportunities that Live offers, allowing you to add third party devices or to create your own unique devices.

Session 1 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

Become familiar with the M4L landscape
Explore pre-built M4L devices that come with Live Suite
Locate and utilise M4L tutorials that come with Live Suite
Identify third party M4L content

Session 2 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session you will be able to:

Create objects and route patch cables
Construct user interfaces in M4L
Build MIDI step sequencers in M4L
Explore further possibilities within Max For Live

Requirements

A computer and internet connection
A good working knowledge of computer systems
A basic awareness of Ableton Live
Access to a copy of Ableton Live Suite (i.e. with Max For Live) (i.e. trial or full license)

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. His specialism is sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development.

His credits include collaborations with Placebo, Radiohead, Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Moby, Snow Patrol, Mute, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Bros.

He holds an MA in Audio Technology from the London College of Music, University of West London, an MSc in Sound & Music Computing at the Center for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London and in 2008 became one of the world’s first wave of Ableton Certified Trainers.

He is a member of the UK’s Music Producers Guild, holds a PG Cert in Learning & Teaching, is an Affiliate of the Institute for Learning, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and until recently was Chairman of the London Committee for the British Section of the Audio Engineering Society.

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Experimental Audio FX in Max

Level: Intermediate

In this workshop you will build an experimental audio FX device that utilizes buffers to create a novel delay line. Experimental processing will be added to the signal path to provide unique sound design possibilities. This workshop aims to provide you with suitable skills to begin exploring building unique, novel and experimental audio FX devices in the Max MSP environment.

Session Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session a successful student will be able to:

Identify MSP objects for building delay FX devices
Build delay line audio FX devices via buffer, record and groove
Build feedback and processing networks
Explore UI concepts and design

Requirements

A computer and internet connection
A good working knowledge of computer systems
An basic awareness of audio processing
Good familiarity with MSP
Access to a copy of Max 8 (i.e. trial or full license)

About the workshop leader

Ned Rush aka Duncan Wilson is a musician, producer and performer. He’s known best for his YouTube channel, which features a rich and vast quantity of videos including tutorials, software development, visual art, sound design, internet comedy, and of course music.

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Build a web assembly synthesiser with iPlug 2

Learn to use iPlug2 C++ audio plugin framework to create a synthesiser that runs on the web.

iPlug2 is a new C++ framework that allows you to build cross-platform audio plug-ins, using minimal code. One of the exciting features of iPlug2 is that it lets you turn your plug-in into a web page that anyone can use without a DAW (see for example https://virtualcz.io). In this workshop participants will learn how to build a web based synthesiser using cloud based tools, and publish it to a GitHub pages website. We will look at some basic DSP in order to customise the sound of the synthesiser and we will also customise the user interface. The same project builds native audio plug-ins, although in the workshop we will focus on the web version.

Note from Oli: Even though the workshop might use lots of unfamiliar technologies, iPlug2 is designed to be simple to use and has many of the more confusing aspects of cross platform programming solved for you already. Don’t worry if the technology sounds scary, everyone should be able to build a custom synthesiser using the example projects and workflow.

Requirements

A GitHub account (free)
Visual studio code (free)
A basic familiarity with Git, C++ and audio processing
Docker Desktop installed (free)

Useful links

About the workshop leader

Oli Larkin is an audio software developer and music technologist with over 15 years of experience developing plug-ins and plug-in frameworks. He has released his own software products and has collaborated with companies such as Roli, Arturia, Focusrite and Ableton. For many years he worked in academia, supporting audio research and sound art projects with his programming skills. Nowadays Oli is working as a freelancer, as well as focusing on his open source projects such as iPlug2

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Getting started with Max

Level: beginners with notions of programming

In this series of online workshops you will explore the most important programming techniques and concepts when working with Max, empowering you to begin to build your own patches and devices that you can deploy in your own music and multimedia projects. 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. This series of workshops aims to provide beginner’s with suitable skills to begin exploring the Max environment.

This online workshop is interactive and you will have opportunities to work with peers and ask questions to an experienced teacher.

Timetable and outcomes

Session 1, 19th September 2020, 4pm UK / 11am EST / 8am PT

Identify key elements of the Max Interface
Create objects and route patch cables
Configure Object properties via the Inspector
Locate and utilise the Max help system

Session 2, 20th September 2020, 4pm UK / 11am EST / 8am PT

Utilise Max messages
Build lists and work with numerical data
Construct data flow and configure message ordering
Build logic circuits and apply math transformations

Session 3, 26th September 2020, 4pm UK / 11am EST / 8am PT

Configure and apply user interface objects
Build graphical user interfaces via Presentation Mode
Encapsulate patchers and sub patchers
Successfully apply data management techniques

Session 4, 27th September 2020, 4pm UK / 11am EST / 8am PT

Construct MIDI messages in Max
Utilise virtual instruments to play musical ideas
Manipulate data to create musical pieces
Explore further possibilities within Max

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. His specialism is sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside audio processing and plug-in development. His credits include collaborations with Placebo, Radiohead, Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Moby, Snow Patrol, Mute, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Bros. He holds an MA in Audio Technology from the London College of Music, University of West London, an MSc in Sound & Music Computing at the Center for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London and in 2008 became one of the world’s first wave of Ableton Certified Trainers. He is a member of the UK’s Music Producers Guild, holds a PG Cert in Learning & Teaching, is an Affiliate of the Institute for Learning, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and until recently was Chairman of the London Committee for the British Section of the Audio Engineering Society. 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.

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