Hi all,

I'm very new to Max MSP and not very fluent in using it. I have worked through the tutorials and have (to an extent) grasped the bare basics. I've searched and searched, both on these forums and on google, but can't find any explanation or tutorial that makes sense for what I'm trying to do.

Basically, I want to use Microsoft's Kinect sensor to control various samples - for example, individual notes. I've seen videos and patches where the video feed has been split into several different sections, with certain sections controlling certain things (for example, moving your right hand controls volume, moving the left controls pitch, etc...) and have tried emulating things like that but to no avail.

I've looked at Synapse and jit.freenect.grab, but to be perfectly honest, I've no idea where to start using these things, or how to implement them into my work. I'm looking for tips to create a "basic" startup patch where the Kinect feed can be split into several segments that control different things - even just something where I can control two separate samples would be fine. My project is a very basic one (compared to other things I've seen online) where I plan to use movement to perform improvised solos over a basic blues backing track. The backing track I have already created, but I'd like to use Max/Kinect to play the improvised solos (for example, setting every sample as a note from a basic blues scale, and moving my hands/body in different places to trigger different notes). I plan to make it simple enough so that members of the audience are able to come up on stage and 'perform' a solo simply by moving around.

There's no patch for me to link because I haven't created anything solid yet. I've played around with various patches I've found on these forums, and tried adding things from them to my own past patches, but I'm unable to get things to work. I'm aware this looks like I'm asking for people to do my work for me, so I apologise, but that's not my intention. I simply want to know (in the most basic of terms) how to or where to get started! Once I have a basic idea or patch in place, I will study it and develop it myself.

Apologies if threads like this are tedious, but I'm in a bit of a rut here. Thanks all!