Max msp 5
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The addition of MSP and Jitter have helped Max stay on top of the computer audio and computer video revolutions, and it has survived two changes of processor (from Motorola 68000 to Power PC, and then Intel Core), a major change of Mac operating system ('Classic' OS to OS X), and a port to Windows XP.
MAX MSP 5 SOFTWARE
Recent releases of Max added support for embedded Java and JavaScript programming, opening the door to databases and web servers and making the package truly Internet–enabled.Ī lot has happened in the software world (and the digital music world) in the 17 years since my first copy of Max arrived on a floppy disk and I gleefully installed it on my 16MHz Mac SE/30. Over the last two decades, Max has acquired the ability to create and process digital audio (Max Signal Processing, hence 'MSP'), and with the addition of a separate library called Jitter it can also work with video and OpenGL graphics.
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In fact, it had been under development at IRCAM in Paris for some years before that, which makes it easily old enough to vote. Max first appeared as a commercial MIDI processing package when Opcode Systems (producers of the Vision sequencer for the Mac) packaged and shipped it early in 1991. Connect a set of objects together by lines or 'patch cords', and you have a real–time processing graph, which might implement something as simple as a stopwatch or as complicated as a polyphonic modular synthesizer or a VJ performance system. Many of the objects supplied in the Max library are designed as user–interface components: buttons, sliders, number boxes and so on. There are objects for inputting and outputting MIDI, audio and video data, so a patcher can operate as a complete application.
MAX MSP 5 CODE
The objects that the user fits together to make a patcher are segments of code that perform specific functions such as numerical calculations, manipulating text, or processing audio streams or video matrices. Alternatively, Max is capable of building 'stand–alone' applications, which can be run on computers that don't have Max installed - a stand–alone is effectively an encapsulated patcher bundled with a copy of the Max kernel and any external objects it needs.
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A Max document, called a 'patcher', can be thought of as a complete audio or video program, although it needs the Max application to run: Max operates as an interpreter, calling the native code of external objects according to how they are connected and used in the patcher. Max is bundled with a large library of pre–compiled objects, often referred to as 'externals' because they are generally written in C or Java and compiled without Max's assistance. (Obviously, as with 'real' programming, more complicated applications will take a lot longer.) Max is extremely visual and highly interactive, so it's certainly possible for non–programmers to dig in, select some of the built–in components, and get a basic audio processor, like a simple mixer or parametric EQ, assembled and running in a matter of minutes. Working with Max is a form of graphical computer programming, but without the pain of conventional programming languages: everything is graphical, direct and immediate. Or if you feel that you're outgrowing the confines of off–the–shelf instruments and recording packages, and want to explore new ways of creating work, MaxMSP is your own personal Meccano set, with an infinite number of pieces. If you're working in hi–tech music or the digital arts and you have a problem to solve, MaxMSP is your Swiss Army Knife. This is mainly because of its flexibility: as an open–ended audio and media toolkit, artists, programmers and studio engineers have used it to construct all sorts of software systems, from audio plug–ins to art installations, and a fair proportion of laptop gigs worldwide will be at least partially Max–powered. Although MaxMSP is a little esoteric compared with mainstream music products, it is deeply entrenched in the digital media scene. Certainly, the user interface featuring object boxes connected by patchworks of lines is something of a modern visual icon. Most readers of this magazine will know about MaxMSP: if you've not used it, then perhaps you've used applications or plug–ins written with it or maybe you've seen it in action, or mentioned in interviews. There may not be many new features, but MaxMSP 5 benefits from a fundamental overhaul that brings Cycling 74's open–ended media programming toolkit into the modern world of multi–processing and slick interface design.