george

This is my first post on these boards so it'll be of some length. I've casually used puredata and max msp before but have been away from them for 3 years. I just got max 6 (I am blown away by the usability of the UI) and am excited to introduce it to my current recording project (simple stuff like singing and drums and guitars).

What I would like to do is record live audio tracks and later treat them with effects I build in max 6. My DAW right now is garageband. Should I record an audio track (for example, a live drum groove) in garageband and send it to max 6 to be treated (by let's say an equalizer that shifts as the audio plays) and then send that back into garageband for arranging? I've thought about recording audio directly into max, however i have more latency issues this way, regardless of how much i fidget with vector size i cannot cleanly clear this hurdle.

Are there objects like sfplay that would be indispensable for my situation/ i should be very aware/masterful of? or is soundflower what I am looking for?

I am curious to hear what you guys have to say. I did some investigative searching on these boards and couldn't find much to use. Although I am sure my situation is not unique and like many beginners I want to run before I can walk. Are there some specific tutorials/documentation that would be pertinent to my situation?

I appreciate any help - this reads pretty belligerent and noobish - but sincerely, even a finger point in the right directions would be monumental.

This is my first post on these boards so it'll be of some length. I've casually used puredata and max msp before but have been away from them for 3 years. I just got max 6 (I am blown away by the usability of the UI) and am excited to introduce it to my current recording project (simple stuff like singing and drums and guitars). 

 I am curious to hear what you guys have to say. I did some investigative searching on these boards and couldn't find much to use. Although I am sure my situation is not unique and like many beginners I want to run before I can walk. Are there some specific tutorials/documentation that would be pertinent to my situation? 

 I appreciate any help - this reads pretty belligerent and noobish - but sincerely, even a finger point in the right directions would be monumental. 

i-have-a-plan-for-the-endgame-just-need-tips-on-how-to-get-there-beginner

Recording directly into Max would seem to simplify your situation massively. Which objects were you suing to record the audio? sfrecord~ or record~? sfrecord~ records to disk rather than RAM so may be the cause of the latency you were experiencing. If you do decide to record into Garageband instead you might have better mileage by using buffer~ and its associated objects to playback the audio you've recorded in Garageband. Soundflower is another viable alternative if you wanted to go that way but would mean you'd have to run Garageband at the same as Max which would be more of a resource drain on your computer. How are you wanting to affect the audio within Max? Would it not be possibly to do it natively within Garageband?

Not at all noobish - I even resent the term noob - everyone starts somewhere ! Personally I would never ever ever use max for audio editing (arrangement etc) and I have never met anyone that does (Im sure plenty of people do in magic fairy pixie internet forum land - but everyone Ive met in the real world uses reaper, protools, cubase etc for arrangement) . Simple audio editing in your daw - fancy bespoke effects etc in max. Of course you could build a DAW in max - but why bother someone else has already spent thousands of hours designing one.

I normally export audio/sound design tracks from max to my daw and do basic editing in that.

Max will of course allow you to make personalised effects and sound that you could never hope to achieve with a DAW.

Not at all noobish - I even resent the term noob - everyone starts somewhere ! Personally I would never ever ever use max for audio editing (arrangement etc) and I have never met anyone that does (Im sure plenty of people do in magic fairy pixie internet forum land - but everyone Ive met in the real world uses reaper, protools, cubase etc for arrangement)  . Simple audio editing in your daw - fancy bespoke effects etc in max. Of course you could build a DAW in max - but why bother someone else has already spent thousands of hours designing one.
I normally export audio/sound design tracks from max to my daw and do basic editing in that.
Max will of course allow you to make personalised effects and sound that you could never hope to achieve with a DAW.


in that case, you can use max for live and ableton: simply make a patch in max which will be your "effect" and use it with ableton, which can function excellently for all arranging purposes (and even more). but I can guess this can be a problem if you don't have ableton and are not willing to pay for it just to play around.

in which case you can check out soundflower, to find ways to send the max output signal into another application.

yep - lots of people use ableton for arrangement and put their max patches in it .

Ive used ableton for arranging loops but I havent used it for chopping up .wav files etc so I dont know how good it is fo rthat kind of stuff - im sure its fine - its probably your best bet.

It also depends on the type of musci you want to make - for rock youd want protools or something - dance music in ableton - electroacoustic music a couple of spoons, super collider and a delay pedal etc etc

yep - lots of people use ableton for arrangement and put their max patches in it .
Ive used ableton for arranging loops but I havent used it for chopping up .wav files etc so I dont know how good it is fo rthat kind of stuff - im sure its fine - its probably your best bet.
It also depends on the type of musci you want to make - for rock youd want protools or something - dance music in ableton - electroacoustic music a couple of spoons, super collider and a delay pedal etc etc


Ableton is brilliant for chopping up samples. I don't think there's anything better part from perhaps Reason with it's rex editor. and You can produce any kind of music with Ableton just as you can with any DAW. Anyway this getting slightly off topic given that the OP was asking about the best method to do it with Garageband.If he's anything like me he doesn't need anyone else encouraging him in his gear lust :P

I have a plan for the endgame, just need tips on how to get there [beginner]