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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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    On The Road: KnobCon 2018

    by Gregory Taylor on
    September 11, 2018

    I've added a new gathering to my list of sprawling, aurally/visually assaultive, and thoroughly addictive annual treasure hunts alongside Superbooth, NAMM, and the Musikmesse- KnobCon. Although I knew about the buzz about the show and its particular vibe, I’d never had the chance to attend. This year, the stars aligned, it was a short drive from my geolocality, and the ticket price was wonderfully right. So off I went. Here's some of I saw and heard....

    An Article about Articles?

    by Darwin Grosse on
    September 11, 2018

    What could possibly be more ‘meta’ than a newsletter article talking about newsletters? While there are a million sources of information on the Web, I find emailed newsletters to be a valuable way to stay current….

    Software Overview: Delta Sound Labs' Stream Plug-In

    by Gregory Taylor on
    August 28, 2018

    Granular synthesis is something that lots of Max users are interested in and one of those techniques where the possibilities (and the parameters associated with them) can be bewildering. I’d like to introduce you to an elegant and simple approach to doing live granulation: Delta Sound Labs’ Stream.

    Artist Focus: Tina Aufiero

    by Cory Metcalf on
    August 14, 2018

    One of my favorite things about the Max community is how diverse and inter-disciplinary it is. Today I’m happy to introduce you to Tina Aufiero, Artistic Director at the Pilchuck Glass School. As a new media artist, glass artist, and educator, Tina has fostered a unique culture at Pilchuck by blending these worlds through curriculum design and careful curation of the Artist in Residency program.

    Between the Gesture and the Thought: Music for Disklaviers and Their Friends

    by Gregory Taylor on
    July 31, 2018

    My last post about recent Max-centric recordings got me thinking about a kind of Max-centric work that’s not available in recorded form nearly as often - works in which Max locates itself in between a player and an acoustic instrument in a live dialog. My personal favorite version of this playground involves the piano in its MIDI and Disklavier forms. Here’s a sampling of interesting works - I’m sure you have a few of your own to recommend, too.

    Some Recent Max-centric Recording Releases

    by Gregory Taylor on
    July 17, 2018

    The last several weeks have seen the release of a quartet of new recordings of interest to both seasoned and aspiring Max users - have a look, and a listen.

    Book Review: Audio Culture - Readings in Modern Music (Revised Edition)

    by Gregory Taylor on
    July 3, 2018

    One of the interesting features of a book that manages to become “a standard work in the field” is that the things we refer to when we use a word like “standard” are subject to change. The appearance of new editions of “standard works” provides us with a chance to reflect on the ways in which editorial changes may mark changes in the practice the book describes. The recent revised edition Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner’s Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music has made a good book better....

    An Interview with Suzanne Thorpe

    by Ashley Bellouin on
    July 3, 2018

    Suzanne Thorpe and I had a chance to discuss her varied musical past. Ranging from co-founding the indie rock band Mercury Rev to working with the late Pauline Oliveros, her recent sound installation work that incorporates Max, and the arts education program for young female-identified women, TECHNE, which she co-founded with Bonnie Jones.

    On The Road: NIME 2018

    by Gregory Taylor on
    June 19, 2018

    Reporting on the annual papers, performances and pyrotechnics that comprise the NIME conference is an exercise in making a kind of reduction sauce - in this case, boiling a rambunctious community of persons with the shared goal of imagining different forms for musical expression down into a manageable collection of images, words, and links.

    Max for Live Focus: PicSeq

    by Gregory Taylor on
    June 5, 2018

    As a big fan of filtered/massaged randomness as a way of generating and organizing variety, I've always got my eyes peeled for interesting new plug-ins. Here’s a new one that I’ve been enjoying quite a bit: PicSeq from the folks at encoderaudio.