tips for a beginner?

Jay's icon

Hi all,

Please forgive in advance what may seem like a very naive question...

I am new to MaxMSP (and DSP programming in general) within the last 6 months. I have gone through and studied most of the tutorials in Max and MSP successfully, meaning that I can replicate the exercises while understanding more or less what each object does and why it is included.

Now I find myself having come to a wall. The tutorials were a nice introduction, but I still don't feel like I have the slightest idea of how to actually start making music on Max.

What do people do to get started? What's a good way to come up with ideas of things to try? I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed by this whole programming world (I have produced on Fruity Loops for the last 6-7 years and this is all very new to me) and I don't know where to begin!

Help, please!

Stefan's icon

There's no straight answer to a question like that. Its like asking how do i compose a masterpiece?! In my opinion it's down to you to come up with ideas. I had some university modules using Max so this has fueled my creativity to a certain degree. I like to think of something i would find useful when making music (eg an effect, sound manipulation) then try developing that. Think of something you'd find useful in Fruity Loops for example. For my module I made a 16 step drum sequencer but with lots of effects built into it - effects that i wanted, not ones that commercial packages come with. This meant i had a tool that did exactly what i've always wanted and i can always improve it when i think of new things to add.

Todd Winkler has written a good book on interactive music using Max so that might be a good starting point and a place to get some inspiration -

Check out some other Max tools people have made too. Gleetchlab is a particularly excellent example and has inspired me to create some more patches -

Hope this helps

Stefan

david@5of4.com's icon

most of my first efforts in max involved building little patches to
either generate some new sound of manipulate/mutilate an existing
sample. i would record these new sounds to my hard drive and then
collect them in a program like Logic to assemble a composition. as i've
become more and more comfortable building patches i find myself doing
more and more of the assembling in max.

(also make sure to check out the examples folder, i've gotten lots of
ideas from those patches)

DonK's icon

I started learning/using Max about 3 months ago. I was stuck in the "I have to find out what every node does in Max" mode before I actually use it to make art mode.

I finally started making some music with it, after I got somewhat comfortable, my experimentation in little patches turned into, "I have to make a sequencer for my analog modular synth (which I just finished building the Paia kit). Once I got it playing notes and controlling levels and sustain, I started trying to add some chaos to it with a drunk following "melody" playing different channels and ports, and a random preset picker. I learned a whole crapload doing this and getting feedback from the forum.

Sequencer is probably one of the easier ways to make music with Max in the beginning, but I still haven't tackled MSP or Jitter too much yet. I'm sure that will be the next few big humps to overcome in the learning cliff (much more of a cliff than a curve to me) than Max seems to be.

I figure learning Max the way it was developed might be a good path to follow for me. No matter how I want to just jump in and make a crazy Jitter/MSP heavy Max patch.

I'm still a beginner, but I'm finally starting to feel like a max user... :)

Stefan Tiedje's icon

Jay Bodley schrieb:
> Now I find myself having come to a wall. The tutorials were a nice
> introduction, but I still don't feel like I have the slightest idea
> of how to actually start making music on Max.

This depends much on your musical interests. Look at those first. If you
are into creating sounds it will lead you to a different approach than
if you are into composing or if you are more interested in instrument
building and playing.
A lot of Maxers get to Max the other way around actually, the came to a
wall with their existing tool and couldn't what they wanted to do...

> What do people do to get started? What's a good way to come up with
> ideas of things to try? I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed by this
> whole programming world (I have produced on Fruity Loops for the last
> 6-7 years and this is all very new to me) and I don't know where to
> begin!

I usually first need something to listen to. The compositional approach
could start with the most stupid sound generation imaginable. Either
metro -> random -> makenote -> noteout, or metro -> random -> mtof ->
cycle~ -> dac~.
These handfull of objects will create stupid notes. Not yet a pleasure.
But that is a possible start. Now while listening, try to change it into
a pleasure. As soon as you know WHY it isn't a pleasure, you can change
that till it pleases you more and more.
Let's stick to the cycle~ patch:
The first is probably to add some volume control, a fader for example.
Next would be to add some envelopes, change the cycle~ into a saw~, add
a filter. Change the range of the random, allow microtones, add another
level of compositional shapes. Whatever bothers you would lead to a
modification...

As long as you can hear a result, you can judge it and change it. But
beware, this could lead you to music never heard before...

Good luck

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