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    The list of what we're discovering about Max and our users grows each day. We tackle everything from hardware reviews to re-reading books from decades past.


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    An Interview with Znibbles creator Julian Rubisch

    by Darwin Grosse on
    February 5, 2019

    The Znibbles website is a great locale for intermediate-to-advanced tutorials for the interested Max and Node for Max developer. In this article, Darwin chats with its creator - Julian Rubisch - to find out about its origins and where it is going.

    An Interview with José de la O

    by Tom Hall on
    February 5, 2019

    I ran into something amazing while I was down in Mexico City recently working on a project with my friends at Pac Interactive. They took me to a gallery opening/presentation that featured a band of Cumbia-playing robots. This plucky little robot band was the work of José de la O and his students at the Monterrey Institute of Technology, and of course I just had to know a little more about the project. José was kind enough to take some time to talk to me about the work.

    Software/Hardware Overview: Let Us Praise the Klee Sequencer

    by Gregory Taylor on
    January 8, 2019

    I’ve been thinking a lot about step sequencers recently, and about different approaches to the idea. I’d like to introduce you to one of those sequencers in its hardware and software incarnations - Scott Stites' Klee sequencer.

    Node For Max Intro – Let’s Get Started!

    by Darwin Grosse on
    January 8, 2019

    One of the most exciting new features of the Max 8 release is its support for the Node JavaScript engine within the Max application. But where do you go if you want to work in Node For Max? To get a good starting point, I worked with developer Florian Demmer to pull together the best "Getting Started" notes to help dig into the N4M package.

    Ringing in the New Year

    by Gregory Taylor on
    January 2, 2019

    Here’s a little Max-centric change ringing to ring in your New Year

    An Interview with Dillon Bastan

    by Tom Hall on
    December 18, 2018

    Dillon Bastan is the author of the MC Movement Studies Package. He was kind enough to sit down for a far-reaching chat on his work, his methods, how he got here, and what’s up.

    Perfect Circuit's Max + Modular Live Stream

    by Andrew Benson, Tom Hall on
    December 18, 2018

    A surprising video started floating around the internal Cycling ’74 Slack channels - a screen, some electronic gear and a bunch of wires, all nestled in some snow-like cotton. Oh, and a crazy sound – along with an invocation that says “Chat to change the sound!” It only took a few moments to see what was going on here: this YouTube video was a live stream featuring a hybrid Max + modular system burbling through a delay, tweaked and driven by the messages typed into the chat stream. It was an cool site, and we had to learn more.

    Book Review: Broken Music - Artists' Recordworks

    by Gregory Taylor on
    December 4, 2018

    Sometimes, a really amazing book will go out of print and increase in cost to ridiculous prices on the secondhand market owing to scarcity and demand. All one can do is to watch the prices rise and continue to regret that point at which you passed on the chance to pick up a copy. But sometimes, Fortune smiles. One of those books for me is back in print at popular prices - the single most essential go-to listing/discography of records created by visual artists.

    An Interview with Gregory Taylor

    by Darwin Grosse on
    December 4, 2018

    Cycling '74 and author Gregory Taylor published a book that takes the creation of step sequencers using Max as its subject: Step by Step: Adventures in Sequencing with Max/MSP. We invited our friend Brad Garton for a spoiler-free chat with newsletter wrangler Gregory Taylor about the new book - where it came from, what it’s for, and more.

    Searching in Max 8

    by Gregory Taylor on
    November 21, 2018

    All of us who check the Forum with any regularity run into “help request” postings that assume a variety of forms, from a student reaching to extend their project to the hopeful new user with a really big idea and no idea of how to start (and nearly everything in between). I expect that everyone can identify with both of them, upon a moment’s reflection. The arrival of the new search features in Max 8 will really change the game for new users - and more seasoned Max programmers, as well.