[ANN, NYC] Making Max Make Music with Markov Chains

AudioMatt's icon

I'm teaching a class in how to build, use, and "record" Markov Chains in NYC this SUNDAY. There's still room.

/ I hope this isn't too spammy.

woyteg's icon

live stream? Record it and put it online afterwards? :)
pretty Pleeaase

MIB's icon

prettttyyyyy Pleeeeeaaaase!!!!

davidestevens's icon

Definitely +1

Alternatively (as it's a paid workshop), I'd happily pay for a recording & patches.

AudioMatt's icon

Whoa. I didn't expect that st all... I'm not exactly sure what Harvestworks' policy is on this. I'll ask.

Wetterberg's icon

I think I'm with David on this. Depending on price I would absolutely pay to watch. (The commute from Copenhagen might be a bit too long)

Scott Kellogg's icon

I would gladly pay to view this class.

woyteg's icon

take my money!

AudioMatt's icon

Ok so harvest works has had some good experiences with online classes. I showed them this thread and we now have tentative plans to do one.. I'll post about it when they are solidified.

Anthony Palomba's icon

I would totally pay for access to a video stream as well.
Count me in!

davidestevens's icon

That's great news. Perhaps you could start a trend!

Which leads me to wonder - there are people in this community who are expert in very specific areas relating to maxetc. Maybe there's a small market for this kind of thing - something more in depth than the tutorials that cycling already kindly provides.

Anthony Palomba's icon

I agree, I can't tell you how many times there has been a Max seminar that I would have loved to attend. But due to work obligations, I was not able to. If these lectures were recorded they could be made available to the public at a reasonable price. Thus making residual profit for the lecturer. These video lectures could be accessed through some Max learning portal. It would also give pro Max users, who may not want to deal with putting together a huge amount of intro curriculum, a place to share some particularly deep Max vertical.

davidestevens's icon

Anthony wrote: It would also give pro Max users, who may not want to deal with putting together a huge amount of intro curriculum, a place to share some particularly deep Max vertical.

Yes! Absolutely (speaking as one who wants to learn). One of the advantages of max is that you can "get by" - and that is also one of its disadvantages long term.

dtr's icon

Interested in the subject as well.

AudioMatt's icon

90% chance we set up a date for an online class tomorrow. Demand, we shall supply!

Anthony, I agree. Unfortunately due to how rare it is to come across a musician maxer -although this is changing- It's tough to imagine a viable class without the introductory material. I think these online classes are an attempt at changing that.

davidestevens's icon

@AudioMatt Any news about this?

AudioMatt's icon

First of all, the physical class went really well and of course have me some ideas for improvement. We worked very hard for five hours on some super technical stuff and then all of the sudden POW our patches started emitting rock music. Very satisfying. :-)

The official word is that we are officially doing an online version of the course but there's no official date yet. Harvestworks is using a system with online videos, forums and a few other bells and whistles so students can go at their own pace but they won't be alone. My guess is late winter/early spring.

Thank you for your interest. This thread was key in making the online version a reality. I'll bump this thread and probably make a new one when we have a date.

davidestevens's icon

Thanks for the update, and I'm glad it all went well! Really looking forward to the course being available - and perhaps this will inspire the creation of more in depth courses.

johannes's icon

very interesting.
any news with the workshop video?

AudioMatt's icon

Videos are done. They're about an hour [edit: maybe more] in total. We're doing some detail work, uploading and scheduling now.

johannes's icon

nice! please just drop here another mail when the video is ready for download etc…
did you also have the patches so we can than reproduce it in max? thanks, j

AudioMatt's icon

This is all unofficial and subject to change without notice.

As it stands, there are ten main tutorial patches which the videos go over. Those patches incorporate markov chain abstractions which are also explained in the videos. The course is meant to explain to people how Markov chains work, how they work in music generation, and inspire students to be creative both in their use in a larger context and also how to hack them from the inside out. In addition, you'll walk away having built your own algorithmic music generator patch using Markov Chains.

joeman's icon

Hi AudioMatt,

Count me in as a keen bean too. Thanks!

Joe

Anthony Palomba's icon

Please keep me in the loop.

MIB's icon

I like loops too ;)

Rodrigo's icon

Bump-a-doodle-doo.

Definitely interested in this.

Roman Thilenius's icon

there is a leak in the chain and they have lost all the numbers.

Wetterberg's icon

so this is what happens if you break a markov chain...

Roman Thilenius's icon

btw, my biggest problem with "chains" and "nets" always was the database part.

programming a markov chain ist a relatively simple game, but storing the data is not.

in OS9, where i dont have SQL, i have to use [coll], which is limited to 999x253 entries.
in OSX i have to use SQL or java – and both are slow, make you dependent on third-party stuff, and have to be learned first.

-110

AudioMatt's icon

patience.  We're working on it.

Wetterberg's icon
Peter McCulloch's icon

I totally second the online content thing. I love teaching Max, but I don't generally have time to get to some of the really out stuff during the semester...

Augustine Bannatyne - Leudar's icon

Nice - I did a patch with Markov chanins once, if I remember rightly lobjects played a big part, - Ill send it over - to be honest it still sounded pretty random but still ....

Anthony Palomba's icon

I am waiting patiently...

radiotonga's icon

Count me in, baby...

Freddud's icon

and me

metamax's icon
AudioMatt's icon
AudioMatt's icon

Sorry it took so long guys. I'll take the blame for that...

Tim Gibson's icon

Hi Audiomatt, I am new here and came across this post. This class is it still going? I have been studying Max/MSP for two year while doing my masters degree. Would love todo this short course as it would be a great help to me for my final these project.

Thank in advance for taking the time. Looking forward to your reply.
Tim.