Andrew Benson

Digging into Max for Live for the first time and need a little nudge? Has the edit button been calling your name? To help you get started, we've gathered a few links to helpful tutorials and Max for Live projects that you might not have seen.

After more than a decade of obsession over granular synthesis, Robert Henke aka Monolake releases his signature Granulator for Max for Live. Get the instrument for free here: http://www.ableton.com/granulator

Note: The Monolake Granulator requires Ableton Live 8 and Max for Live.

Max for Live: The Monolake Granulator

Enroll in Advanced Music Production with Ableton Live at: http://berkonl.in/1NBOTTu 

In this music production series, Berklee Online instructor Loudon Stearns demonstrates the programming behind the "Quantize Mapper" Max for Live device which can be downloaded here: http://t.opsp.in/b0A4j 

In this lesson, Stearns covers the basics of working with Max for Live, outlining the design specifications for the device and showing how to open and interact with some basic M4L functions including opening M4L patches, freezing patches, locking patches, and the patching and presentation views.

About Berklee Online:
Berklee Online is the continuing education division of Berklee College of Music, delivering online access to Berklee's acclaimed curriculum from anywhere in the world, offering online courses, certificate programs, and degree programs. Contact an Academic Advisor today:
1-866-BERKLEE (US)
1-617-747-2146 (international callers)
advisors@online.berklee.edu
http://www.facebook.com/BerkleeOnline
http://www.twitter.com/BerkleeOnline

About Loudon Stearns
Loudon Stearns is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, a course author and instructor at Berklee Online, and an active media-artist. Within the Contemporary Writing and Production department at Berklee College of Music he prepares students to work as independent composers and producers in a technology-laden music industry. Online, he focuses on the latest electronic music styles and music-technology innovations, showing students how to analyze contemporary styles and use the latest music technology in their own works. An innovator in both education and art, Loudon authored a Massive Open Online Class, "Introduction to Music Production," that has provided high-quality free eduction to hundreds of thousands of students, received an award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association for "Excellence in Teaching" and received the "Excellence in Media Art" award from the Emerson College Visual and Media Art department.

Holding a Bachelors of Music in Contemporary Writing and Production and Bass Performance from Berklee College of Music, and a Master of Fine Arts in Media Art from Emerson College, Loudon pulls from a broad range of skills in the creation of his own multi-media performances that include live music, projection-mapping, dance, visual art and interactivity. Of particular interest is using the entire world as a performance space by using internet streaming to coordinate numerous performers and audiences on vastly different parts of the globe. The technical and aesthetic challenges of this type of performance are new and exciting and require the sort of broad skill-set that Loudon has developed through his extensive institutional and self education in music, sound, performance, motion graphics, photography, programming, and construction.

Max for Live API Basics - Quantize Mapper Design (Part 1 of 9)

Com Truise - Dreambender (played within Ableton live and recorded) 
 
Demonstrating using some beta Max For Live modules to quickly put together an OpenGL scene with 2 spheres, 2 lights, 2 cameras - controlled with LFO and audio. 
 
Each module inherits the rendering context, material, LFO, etc, based on the placement of the device and the devices around it. This also works currently within racks as well and observes device status and controller focus. Inspired by several projects including the Cycling74 VIZZIE modules and the Reactable software (various incarnations). 
 
During the recording I use several of the modules created for the system and spheres as examples, but 3D models and other shapes/meshes are also supported. Toward the end of the video I apply a video texture to the objects - this has also been enhanced to use shader modules and the ability to capture scenes. Outputs such as Syphon and cornerpin-style projection mapping layers with mixing and blend modes have also been introduced. 
 
Development is currently on hold and being migrated to standalone (non Max For Live) modules to make them more widely available to others, with companion M4L devices for things like synchronization and API observation. 
 
The recording is kinda slow and blurry from the crap screen recording method but it runs at 60fps without recording running.

WIP - Context Modular Visual System - Max For Live Version

Did I miss something? If you have your own Max for Live links to share or have something else you'd like to learn about, leave a note in the comments.

Digging into Max for Live for the first time and need a little nudge?  Has the edit button been calling your name? To help you get started, we've gathered a few links to helpful tutorials and Max for Live projects that you might not have seen.

First of all, if you want to find some ready-to-use Max for Live devices, it's hard to beat the high-quality ones found in the Packs section of Ableton.com, which includes Robert Henke's Granulator and Alexkid's Instant Haus devices. 

The unofficial Max for Live community site MaxforLive.com has collected over 900 user-created devices that are freely downloadable.


Max for Live users often share their projects here, too.

K-Devices sells a collection of Max for Live Instrument and Effects devices, some of which come with TouchOSC and Lemur templates. They also offer the free EXT modulation sequencer device.


Finally, who doesn't need a dub siren?  Check out this one from AudioLemon.

If you want to read some basics tutorials an check out some highly editable free Max for Live devices, have look at Sebastian Tomczak's little-scale blog and youtube channel. 

Loudon Stearns at Berklee has created some Max for Live API tutorial videos that are worth watching if you'd like to use Max for Live to control and respond to other things in your Live set.

 Want to add live visuals to your Live set?  Mike Todd demonstrates his WIP-Context Modular Visual System in Max for Live.

Did I miss something? If you have your own Max for Live links to share or have something else you'd like to learn about, leave a note in the comments.


Helpful tutorials and Max for Live projects to get you started.

pushing-the-edit-button

The v-module and vizzable suites are a great place to get started until I get around to releasing that code - 

https://cycling74.com/forums/v-module-and-vizzable-community-development

The v-module and vizzable suites are a great place to get started until I get around to releasing that code - https://cycling74.com/forums/v-module-and-vizzable-community-development


 is a great place to look at as well , as the author Yehezkel Raz does smart and simple little plugins. Also Nick Rothwel's max for live related page is worth watching : 

 and of course the LOM navigator should be mentionned :

http://synthfan.info/mytutorials/lom-navigator/

i think that http://4live.me/tagged/max4live is a great place to look at as well , as the author Yehezkel Raz does smart and simple little plugins. Also Nick Rothwel's max for live related page is worth watching : http://maxforlive.loadbang.net/ and of course the LOM navigator should be mentionned :
http://synthfan.info/mytutorials/lom-navigator/


Pushing the Edit Button