Meet Our Max Certified Trainers
Here are the artists and educators helping people get creative in Max
Phelan Kane is a Berlin and London based music producer, engineer, artist, developer and educator. For over twenty years, he has been active in both the music industry and the contemporary music education sector, with a focus on electronic music and alternative bands.
His specialty is sound design and production techniques such as synthesis and sampling, alongside mixing, mastering, audio processing and plug-in development. His credits include sources as diverse as Placebo, Radiohead, Fad Gadget, Depeche Mode, Moby, Snow Patrol, Mute, Sony BMG, Universal, EMI and Warner Bros. In 2006, he completed a MA in Audio Technology from the London College of Music, University of West London and became one of the first wave of Ableton Certified Trainers in the world in 2008. In 2016 he completed study for a MSc in Sound & Music Computing at the Center for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London. He is a member of the UK's Music Producers Guild, holds a PG Cert in Learning & Teaching, is an Affiliate of the Institute for Learning, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2017 he became a Native Instruments Specialist in both Reaktor and Maschine. From 2017 to 2019 he was the Chair of the London Committee for the Audio Engineering Society, UK Branch. Phelan has taught at various HE institutions, including the Dept. of Music and Media at the University of Surrey, BIMM London, the University of West London, Tileyard Education, United Pop and Music Hackspace. He owns a very (un)healthy collection of audio hardware and software toys and possesses an obsession with synthesis owning many vintage analogue synthesizers such as modular systems, Moog’s, ARP’s and Oberheim’s. He is currently running the electronic music record label Meta Junction Recordings and the audio software development company Meta Function, which specialize in Max for Live devices releasing the M4L synth Wave Junction in partnership with Sonicstate.
Melody Loveless is an artist, musician, performer and educator who works with creative and interactive technologies. Her expertise includes teaching first-time users and programmers, consulting other educators on curriculum, and showing artists how to incorporate Max into their practice to create interdisciplinary projects. She believes in technology’s potential to empower others to create art and enjoys sharing techniques and ideas with others.
As an artist and performer, Melody Loveless uses Max alongside a variety of other technologies and tools. Her work ranges from generative sound installations, live coding performance, multisensory performance, interactive installations, long duration performance art, multichannel sound, and more. As an educator, she has extensive experience teaching people of various ages, backgrounds, and abilities. She has taught creative technologies and programming languages at various institutions and organizations, including New York University, Harvestworks, the New School, and Hunter College. As a Max Certified Trainer, Melody is available for one-on-one lessons, consultations, group classes, and workshops.
Andrew is an Interactive Experience Designer with a focus on creating real-time audiovisual animations and lighting installations. His design work has been featured in live experience settings such as music performances and museums across the country. He also has a passion for learning and sharing knowledge of design and Max MSP and runs a Youtube channel where he documents his installation builds and shares Max programming techniques.
Andrew’s artwork focuses on real-time audio responsive visual animations and lighting systems designed for the live concert experience. Through his work, Andrew has had the opportunity to collaborate with many talented artists and musicians, both nationally and globally. He also has an extensive work background in designing fully immersive responsive environments, mixed reality games, augmented musical instruments, playable art installations and much more. Andrew obtained his Master’s Degree in Arts Media and Engineering from Arizona State University, where he had the opportunity to lead workshops and help teach new students as the program’s tutor and teacher’s assistant. Andrew now assists with Interactive Experience Design and HCI research at ASU’s Synthesis Center. Andrew is also an experienced teacher and has uploaded several Max MSP tutorials to YouTube as well as project documentation videos. He hopes through his YouTube channel he can continue helping others learn more about Max MSP and inspire them to see all of its potential.
Kyle Duffield is a Toronto based Interactive Experience Artist and Designer who makes immersive installations and brand activations. His decade-plus teaching and consulting expertise spans audio, video, creative coding, electronics, interaction design, and spectacle creation in the form of university courses, workshops, and tutoring sessions.
As a Max Certified Trainer, Kyle’s eager to pass on his wisdom and knowledge in Max, MSP, MaxForLive, Jitter, OpenGL, Javascript, Arduino, sensor, and general wizardry. He also has extensive experience working with artists, designers, producers, organizations, and agencies to realize their visions through his consultation. As an artist and designer, he’s affiliated with the creative studio Electric Perfume, where he’s involved in making large scale multimedia interactive experiences for art exhibitions and corporate clients. Have a wicked idea, or want to upgrade your skills? Contact Kyle from here or on social media!
Chloe Alexandra Thompson is an artist and touring sound designer whose work has been featured at museums, galleries and festivals domestically and internationally. Using Max, Thompson creates unique sonic environments and interactive performance tools through signal processing acoustic instruments and field recordings, as well as building custom synthesizers.
Prior to committing to a full-time practice of sound design and audio programming, Thompson served as Director of Technology at Open Signal, a public broadcasting and new media arts center in Portland, Oregon. Applying her background knowledge in IT and web development, Thompson uses Max as a networking tool to create patches that link with lighting boards, software, or cloud-based web applications. Thompson teaches Max in one on one and group settings, with an aim to empower students to interact, collaborate and be engaged in their own learning experience. Thompson has also developed online education curriculums and content for programs in the sonic arts, taught workshops at academic institutions internationally, and offers content creation services, artist talks, and consultation to educational institutions and companies.