Max for Live Instruments

Instruments

Max for Live lets you create Instruments which receive MIDI information from the Live application and use that information to generate audio output which can be sent back to the Live application or be further processed by any number of Audio effects devices.

Max for Live provides several tutorials and example Instruments you can try, study, and modify:

Loop Shifter, one of the Big Three devices, is an unusual MIDI instrument that uses MIDI notes to trigger different ways of playing back an audio file.
The Max for Live tutorials are Live sessions that consist of a sequence of fully-featured devices to introduce you to the basics of programming and techniques for processing data. These tutorials include a sequence on building FM synthesizers .
Max for Live includes Pluggo for Live - a collection of Max for Live devices derived from Cycling '74's Pluggo plug-in collection. Several instruments are included.

In addition, the Max programming environment itself provides you with some helpful tools for one of the classic challenges of synth creation - the management of polyphony. The Max poly~ object is created specifically to efficiently manage polyphony in the context of synthesizer design. The MSP tutorials also include a section on using the poly~ object .

You can use any MIDI input object to receive MIDI data from Live application. You'll use the plugout~ object for audio output.