Let’s kick off some discussion in here!

I’ve been tryinging to learn MAX for the last couple months. Building simple synth is cool, but I’ve stalled out. It looks like my local community college offers a class, so I’m hoping to get some more intentional learning in beyond YouTube videos.

What do you do with Max?

  • ChappIO@waveform.socialEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I WANT to make workflow improving devices for Ableton (Max for Live). But it is SO HARD to get used to the graphical programming. And the JavaScript option isn’t very solid.

    I’m a programming professionally but it feels like I am starting over when I’m working on Max devices.

    • murkrellr@waveform.socialEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      have you looked into supercollider? or Csound? they are more like programming languages and are likely to be more up-your-alley if the graphical programming thing is an obstacle… they are also both free software im pretty sure.

      • ChappIO@waveform.socialEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I haven’t. I mainly wanted to use Max to improve my ableton workflow. So I’m using Max for Live for that.

        I am currently working on a touch screen mixer that works by placing a channel strip device in each channel. It’s going but it’s going slowly.

  • michaelgarydean@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I love Max! I’ve spent a lot of years working with it and I teach private lessons.

    I think the best place to learn more is really to cover all the tutorials inside the Max documentation and then start tearing apart Max for Live devices from maxforlive.com. Personally, I tend to use Max just in Max for Live these days as that is it’s strength imo. I noticed with DSP the CPU goes quickly through the roof so I usually stick to creating precise, and focused devices centered around generative music processes.

    @chappIO Javascript is pretty well supported, including for UI, but I have noticed issues when things are timing sensitive as the code is slow to execute. Here’s some old examples I have kicking around on my github if you’re looking for quick reference: https://github.com/michaelgarydean/max-library/tree/master/Javascript

  • emumu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’d say doing the tutorials helps a lot, also with broadening your horizon with things you might want to look into. I did that first and had a bit of a head start when I took courses while studying and those had the same effect: Showing me things that I didn’t know about but interested me immediately.

    I didn’t think granular synthesis would be so for me. And I didn’t think it would make more sense for the sun to play that piece via a light sensor, instead of just me.

    Edit: Mind you, that was over a decade ago. But by the looks of it the tutorials are still largely the same and I love recognizing those camp default video files.