Archive for August, 2007

Synth-Building with Max/MSP (Introduction)

by Darwin Grosse

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. (This work was developed in Max 4.6, an older version.)

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #8

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

As promised, we are going to clean up our previous synth-building patch, create some presets and, well, clean it up some more.

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #7

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

Well, in honor of Pluggo 3′s brand new release, this tutorial will focus on turning our existing software synth into a full-blown VSTi plug-in. Well, full-blown might be a bit strong – rather, we are going to get it to the point that Cubase, Logic or Digital Performer can host it…

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #6

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

Several of the responses I’ve gotten back from the last tutorials requested some techniques to provide some additional waveforms. Over the next few tutorials, we will expand our little polysynth to include some waveform – but do it in a way that is a little more fun than just switching between static waves.

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #5

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

OK – we’ve built the voice patch for a poly~ object, now we have to turn it into a legitimate polyphonic synth. Here is our “master patch” (as found in the last tutorial, which you can download from this link):

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #4

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

Now that we have a useful (but basic) monosynth, we have to figure out where to go next. For my money, the biggest limitation of our little monosynth is that it is, well, a monosynth. In the next two tutorials, we will turn our single-voice synth into a 16-voice polysynth. It won’t quite rival a Prophet 5, but it should be a good way to learn the basics of polysynth creation.

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #3

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

Sorry for the long delay – the real world has a way of getting out-of-hand. Nevertheless, we shall continue…

In our last article, we beefed up our basic synth by adding volume control using an A/R envelope. Now that we have some control over the basic amplitude, it’s time to move onto filtering.

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #2

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

In the last article, we created a simple synthesizer using basic Max and MSP objects. The biggest problem with that synth was the last ov output control – and an annoying thump in the output whenever a new key was struck. In this, the second article, we will correct some of these problems – and open some new doors.

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Synth-Building with Max/MSP #1

This series of tutorials first appeared on my CreativeSynth.com website between 2001 and 2002. Due to their popularity (especially amongst new Max users), I have moved them to the Cycling74.com website. Read the introduction.

I’ve been using Cycling 74′s Max software since 1992 or 1993 (it was Opcode’s at the time), and jumped on-board with their MSP software as soon as it was available. Most of the last 8-or-so years was spent reworking some step-sequencers and routers that are important for my music work. However, with recent upgrades to my computers, and a new G4 laptop, I’ve gotten more heavily into synth building.

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