Best Arduino to Max / Max to Arduino interface?

Miscbeginner
Tori's icon

Tori

Hi,
I'm looking to create a variety of projects that will have Max and Arduino talking to one another. Arduino lists several options on its site:
http://playground.arduino.cc/Interfacing/MaxMSP
But most look out of date. Are these still being used and updated? If so, does the Max community recommend one?
Thanks for your feedback :)

brendan mccloskey's icon

brendan mccloskey

Hi Tori
this is one of those question that will definitely generate several differing responses, regardless of aims/intentions. Personally, I find "arduivis" eminently simple, accessible and flexible. Those criteria may coincide with your own.

If you want plug-and-play functionality with minimum fuss/tweakability, then Maxuino or Firmata may be the way to go - but search this forum for provisos!! Again it depends what your input<>output demands and learning-time constraints are. If you want something more open-ended have a look on 'Instructables' or 'Adafruit'. I learned my (admittedly limited) Arduino<>Max chops from Ladyada and similar experts. Roll your own perhaps?

HTH
Brendan

Scott Fitzgerald's icon

Scott Fitzgerald

Max has a serial to Arduino example, and the Arduino serial communication examples have compressed Max patches included.

Tori's icon

Tori

Thanks Scott and Brendan. I'm very grateful for your input, and will follow up on both of your leads! Happy to hear the opinions of others as well if there are more out there.

musinou's icon

musinou

I am personally a fan of Teensy, that is an Arduino IDE compatible board. You can easily build a USB MIDI instrument, so MAX or Live or any music software sees it as any MIDI instrument. I use serial when I need to do something that MIDI is not capable of doing, but where I can use MIDI, I do. Alternatively the Leonardo can work as a MIDI instrument with TeeOnArdu.

This is the project I am working on. I use a USB MIDI Teensy for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4Nhx8Vq_g