E-A_MusicPrimer and Mar(r)xTutorials (updated) **new versions available**

E-A_MusicPrimer6 is designed to help teach some basic audio principles and common synthesis techniques to beginning students. Partial list of tutorial modules: Waveforms, Harmonics, Additive Synthesis, Interference, Clipping, Masking, Beats, Filters (Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, Graphic), Amplitude Modulation (AM), Frequency Modulation (FM), Timbre Modulation (TM).

There is also a ProjectSynthPack module with some slightly more elaborate demonstration synths and audio file manglers. Students can use them as a resource for their first electronic music mini-projects.

E-A_MusicPrimer6 is available as a stand-alone Mac application, a MAX collective, and as a folder of individual patches.

Since many users may only avail themselves of the stand-alone application (at least initially), a pedagogical decision was made to show as much of the signal flow and inner workings of the modules as possible. As a consequence, the user interfaces are not “pretty.”  In addition to reinforcing the concept of cause and effect, the approach also allows the patches to serve as an introduction to teaching Max/MSP programming.

Ma(r)xTutorials **new version** — updated and significantly expanded — is a set of Max tutorials for beginners. It contains a collections of simple patches, useful Max/MIDI “tools,” plus small demo and example patches aimed primarily at students just beginning to learn Max. They cover only Max (no MSP or Jitter modules). The patches are all pretty well documented, and provide a lot of “instant gratification,” since users can immediately interact with the patches and make “noise” with them. They are intended to supplement the tutorials that come with the program.

How was MAX used?

Software built entirely in MAX.