Content You Need: Digital Orchestra Toolbox

We tend to focus a lot on new Max objects in the Package Manager, but with Max there are many ways to solve problems without compiling externals. This Package Manager release brings a collection of highly practical Max abstractions from McGill University's IDMIL, designed with music and digital orchestra projects in mind. Looking at this package, all of the well-organized abstractions are clearly the result of real-world patching that we can all learn a few tricks from.

The Digital Orchestra Toolbox (DOT) started its life back in 2006 as a repository of useful MaxMSP functions for the CIRMMT/McGill Digital Orchestra Project. Over the years it has grown and evolved as it was used in subsequent projects at McGill and elsewhere, including the development and performance of a number of new digital musical instruments such as the T-Stick and the Spine.

Currently, the DOT includes more than 120 tools, and unlike many packages available for extending Max, it consists only of abstractions rather than compiled external objects. This ensures easy cross-platform functionality, and makes the internal structure and function of the tools viewable, understandable, editable and appropriable by users within Max itself.

Authors: Joseph Malloch, Marlon Schumacher, Stephen Sinclair

You can find and install the Digital Orchestra Toolbox in the Max Package Manager.