What sounds stick with you? What sounds do you chase? Where do your ideas begin when you sit down to patch? Max is a kind of portal to whatever you’re hearing, or want to hear – including the sounds of inspiration. 

We asked three patchers to create and recreate sounds they love – heard in music, in the world, anywhere – not necessarily to create an identical copy, but to see where they might end up in the process. 

Here are their results.

xinisnot

The first CD of techno music that I got was Underworld's 1992-2002. So, I decided to create the sound of Born Slippy Nuxx, my favorite track at the time. First, I created a wavetable synth based on the spec of Waldorf's Microwave, which is said to have been used for Nuxx. Microwave is said to have used the wavetables of PPG Wave. Fortunately, I could get them on WaveEdit Online under CC 1.0. When my patch was almost finished, I decided to finish it as an M4L device since it was a good opportunity.

After creating some effects that seem to have been used in Nuxx, I created a sequence of chord progression and completed my patch. While not exactly the same as the original, I think I've created sounds with similar texture. M4L and patches are relatively simple. So I think it 's easy to modify them. It may be fun to create some modules from the M4L or patches and combine them like Eurorack, or use MC in signal chain.

sebairstein

This project is inspired by a song and a line from Jimi Hendrix's title, "Up from the Skies": "I want to hear and see everything." Modestly, I tried to adapt this concept into an oscillator, while practicing my Gen~ and Max knowledge in general.

So, I invite you to join me in building this oscillator and enjoy observing a live scope :) .

At the end of the project, the goal of creating, seeing, and hearing a multitude of waveforms is partially achieved. The sonic results are rich and varied, but I strive not to judge a sound, but rather to accept it for what it is.

I am obviously very moved and intimidated to be here sharing the inside of one of my projects. I hope it will bring inspiration and usefulness to your day with Max.

Download the patches
Note: this patch requires the Ease package, available to install from the Max Package Manager.

Alexander Panos

Instead of replicating a sound from a particular piece of music, I focused on designing a sound characteristic of a wider genre: the neuro bass. Having spent many years adjacent to the bass music community, it’s a sound I have a lot of history with. Despite this, I’ve somehow managed to be impressively inconsistent at creating it myself. This is partly because the neuro bass can take so many different forms. In an attempt to capture a fraction of its range, I made two different kinds of basses, each controllable with an XY pad. 

The first bass, which I’ve labeled “glassy”, follows some more recent trends in bass design. It has a resonant, liquid-like quality with an evolving spectral profile and offers many parameters to alter its timbre. The second bass, labeled “heavy”, is a bit closer to the neuro bass’s predecessor, the reese bass. Lots of distortion takes advantage of the beating between a pair of detuned saws while resonant filters impart a howling tone.

It’s worth nothing that this kind of sound design is built upon effects modules and amenities typically provided by a DAW (fancy compressors, saturators, resampling, etc.). Working only with stock Max, I had to find a different path to get me to the same place. This patch comes complete with several features including: custom oscillators, filter banks, frequency shifters, chorus & reverb, spectral processing, mid/side processing, and more. There’s plenty to find on the UI/UX side of things as well. Explore every subpatch marked in blue!