Darwin Grosse

A lot of the time, people tend think of Max as a program for laptop musicians, keyboard-focused composers and interactive video artists. But here at Cycling ‘74 we’ve noticed that there seems to be a large number of guitarists interested in using Max. How do we know? Every time we do an article or tutorial on the guitar, the click-o-meter spikes and our inboxes blow up.

For starters, it’s not necessarily easy to get your guitar connected to Max. While most audio interfaces have 1/4” jacks that let you plug your guitar into with some sort of success, a few companies out there have been building interfaces that are particularly useful for guitarists. These interfaces make it easy to plug-and-play your instrument into any audio software by providing outputs whose levels and impedance are set up for guitar and bass.

When it comes to information on the audio specs, included software and other details about the interfaces, audio magazines and websites will be your first stop. For this introduction, we are only going to focus on one question: Does this interface make it easy to use your guitar with Max? Here are a pair of possible solutions.

 is a super-simple device that allows you to input your guitar or bass into your computer system. It’s got one drawback - it doesn’t have any outputs at all. That means you are either depending on Max’s ability to use different interfaces for input and output, or you are going to have to create some sort of “combined” device.

I tried both the “different interfaces” and the “combined device” configurations on my Mac Mini, and found that both of them worked well as long as I wasn’t running the interface through any kind of USB hub (including the one on my Novation AudioHub). There is an initial buzzy sound when you connect up as the interface locks onto its buffering, and then it’s off to the races. Somewhat surprisingly, I found that creating a combined (or Aggregate Device) tended to work better for use in Max – the latency seemed lower, and the lock-in was more reliable.

This solution gave me an interface to Max that had acceptable latency, good overall levels, and a fine sound. Overall, I thought the iRig HD was an easy way to get things working, and it’s what I am likely to use it a lot in the studio.

 is a more traditional combined input/output audio interface that seems to be focused on the home recordist. It features a single mono guitar input, and the output is a stereo headphone-style 1/4” jack. Since it’s a standard USB interface, no drivers are required and it’s easy to use on any machine.

Since this device had an output, I thought that I’d take a different approach while working with it, using my laptop as a Max-based effects processor, and feeding the output to my guitar amp. Much fun! The output – since it is a headphone output – was pretty hot, but dropping the output levels on the interface’s gain control got things working properly. The result? This guitar/laptop combo ended up being a sweet live processing rig - playing around with shufflers, loopers and quirky delay lines was a hoot!

So, since we are focused on Max, what can you actually do once you get your guitar funneled into your computer? Here are a couple of great places to get started:

But I think that the doors really swing open wide with Max 7’s new ability to use Max for Live devices in your Max patch. Now, you can combine interesting pure Max functions with higher level Max for Live devices to create a rig that would be impossible to consider in any other software system. By using the wide-open programming environment of Max (vs. the rack-oriented paradigm of most other software), you can create parallel processing systems, improbable effects chains and articulation trackers that can completely open up your options for guitar performance.

I hope that you’ve found this quick overview to be an interesting way to think of using your guitar with Max. Look for more guitar-focused information in newsletters, blog entries and tutorial series of the future. And 

When it comes to  information on the audio specs, included software and other details about the interfaces, audio magazines and websites will be your first stop. For this introduction, we are only going to focus on one question: Does this interface make it easy to use your guitar with Max? Here are a pair of possible solutions.

The IK Multimedia iRig HD is a super-simple device that allows you to input your guitar or bass into your computer system. It’s got one drawback - it doesn’t have any outputs at all. That means you are either depending on Max’s ability to use different interfaces for input and output, or you are going to have to create some sort of “combined” device. 

The Behringer Guitar Link UCG102 is a more traditional combined input/output audio interface that seems to be focused on the home recordist. It features a single mono guitar input, and the output is a stereo headphone-style 1/4” jack. Since it’s a standard USB interface, no drivers are required and it’s easy to use on any machine. 

So, since we are focused on Max, what can you actually do once you get your guitar funneled into your computer? Here are a couple of great places to get started: 

The Cycling ‘74 website includes a mult-part series on guitar processing that I wrote a number of years ago. As you can tell from the screenshots, it was written back in the days of Max 5. No problem, though - everything still works perfectly. (Let’s hear it for back-compatibility!)


A little judicious googling will also turn up other guitar articles written in the subsequent years, too - like this introduction to using Max for guitar processing, for example.

In addition, the Forums include discussions on the subject.

I hope that you’ve found this quick overview to be an interesting way to think of using your guitar with Max. Look for more guitar-focused information in newsletters, blog entries and tutorial series of the future. And ROCK ON!


guitar-interfaces-for-max

That´s really great! I have been using Max, a Macbook and my guitar for more than 4 years now. I have a bunch of different interfaces, the tinny and easy iRig, the Apogee JAM, a RigKontrol, from NI and some USB, like the MOTU AudioExpress. All of those work really great with MAX, for different purposes. MAX is one of the most useful tools for guitar players and composers. Max rules!

I've done everything as described here. The input meter in preferences and in the meter in the Max patch are jumping, but no sound is coming from either my amp or my headphones. Is there a particular vector size I need to use? Something else?

1. Plug your UCG102 in to your Mac and the light on the unit should come on. This light will be blue on older models of this unit and orange on newer models of this unit.

2. The UCG102 should be seen by your Mac as a USB AUDIO CODEC. Please check your Mac's sound preferences when the unit is connected to see if it does show up as a USB AUDIO CODEC. If it does, then please select it for the INPUT.

4. Plug your guitar into the GUITAR INPUT of the UCG102, play it for a bit, and see if you can see signal showing up on the INPUT LEVEL meter on the sound preferences screen. You will not hear anything at this point. You should only see signal on the INPUT LEVEL meter on the sound preferences screen. If you do see the signal, then the unit is working properly.

5. You will then need to open up the software that you would like to use with your UCG102 and choose the USB AUDIO CODEC as the audio input for that software. If you would like to hear the signal coming back out of the headphone output on the UCG102, then you will need to set the output of the software to be the USB AUDIO CODEC as well. All sound will then be processed by the software.

2. The UCG102 should be seen by your Mac as a USB AUDIO CODEC. Please check your Mac's sound preferences when the unit is connected to see if it does show up as a USB AUDIO CODEC.  If it does, then please select it for the INPUT.

5. You will then need to open up the software that you would like to use with your UCG102 and choose the USB AUDIO CODEC as the audio input for that software. If you would like to hear the signal coming back out of the headphone output on the UCG102, then you will need to set the output of the software to be the USB AUDIO CODEC as well. All sound will then be processed by the software.


Guitar Interfaces for Max