Nico S.

First of all I am glad to find this forum as it is a valuable resource for learning. I am an art student studying in London. The past year I've been interested with sound design and production and video production as well. I have done my 'baby-steps' of sound production in different programs, initially Adobe Audition and later Ableton. By solely experimenting throughout learning this program, I got interested in soundscapes and sound environments both functioning as individual artworks or implemented into a big immersive environments (resulting in different handing on the sound itself). Although it may sound odd, I found interested in Max/MSP because I am interested in the process of production as well as the outcome, and for that Max/MSP seems to me that opens great artistic possibilities in parallel with programming .

As I don't have anything to present in order to get better advice, I can only say that what my aim is to create sound environments much like Stockhausen's and Xenaki's compositions, or more contemporary composers like Autechre. I have already started developing sounds similar to them in Ableton. And small digital videos mainly by using Premiere and footage I've taken.

In this point I have to mention that my music knowledge is very limited and everything I learned was in a way of "What will happen if I press the button", however I am passionate about this, and dedicate enough time to study these stuff. Max/MSP however is more like a programming software as I can see, and requires some level of programming knowledge which unfortunately I do not have.

My question therefore is, if you think that using Max/MSP at this stage would be beneficial for what I want to do, or I will be able to use it without major knowledge about programming. I am planning to get involved in computational arts in the future however which surely will help me get things going. If not, what other sound design program you recommend? At this point I am comfortable using Ableton but a friend recommended Cubase or Digital Performer.

Thank you in advance, and I am sorry if my question is not relevant to the forum's contents.

First of all I am glad to find this forum as it is a valuable resource for learning. I am an art student studying in London. The past year I've been interested with sound design and production and video production as well. I have done my 'baby-steps' of sound production in different programs, initially Adobe Audition and later Ableton. By solely experimenting throughout learning this program, I got interested in soundscapes and sound environments both functioning as individual artworks or implemented into a big immersive environments (resulting in different handing on the sound itself). Although it may sound odd, I found interested in Max/MSP because I am interested in the process of production as well as the outcome, and for that Max/MSP seems to me that opens great artistic possibilities in parallel with programming . 

As I don't have anything to present in order to get better advice, I can only say that what my aim is to create sound environments much like Stockhausen's and Xenaki's compositions, or more contemporary composers like Autechre. I have already started developing sounds similar to them in Ableton. And small digital videos mainly by using Premiere and footage I've taken. 

In this point I have to mention that my music knowledge is very limited and everything I learned was in a way of "What will happen if I press the button", however I am passionate about this, and dedicate enough time to study these stuff. Max/MSP however is  more like a programming software as I can see, and requires some level of programming knowledge which unfortunately I do not have.

My question therefore is, if you think that using Max/MSP at this stage would be beneficial for what I want to do, or I will be able to use it without major knowledge about programming. I am planning to get involved in computational arts in the future however which surely will help me get things going.  If not, what other sound design program you recommend?  At this point I am comfortable using Ableton but a friend recommended Cubase or Digital Performer. 

Thank you in advance, and I am sorry if my question is not relevant to the forum's contents.


Beginner Question on Max & Advice on Sound/video producing - Art Student