WILLxLOVE

First, much love and respect to all. I'm an avid ableton live user, and obviously being an owner of the suite version I'm offered a 30% discount on m4l this month. I'm not what I'd call a "power user" yet, but have a great capacity for learning and the drive as well. So my question is, wanting to delve further into electronic production and performance, is M4L up my alley? So far I gather that it's meant to create devices in ableton(max4live), from midi, audio or instrument, but with no experience in doing anything of the like, should I give it a go? The prospect of making my own synths is exciting and experimental sounds are what I like.

First, much love and respect to all. I'm an avid ableton live user, and obviously being an owner of the suite version I'm offered a 30% discount on m4l this month. I'm not what I'd call a "power user" yet, but have a great capacity for learning and the drive as well. So my question is, wanting to delve further into electronic production and performance, is M4L up my alley? So far I gather that it's meant to create devices in ableton(max4live), from midi, audio or instrument, but with no experience in doing anything of the like, should I give it a go? The prospect of making my own synths is exciting and experimental sounds are what I like.
Thx


hello-all-an-absolutely-newb-question-non-technical

Totally biased comment here but I tend to lean towards "If the idea of building your own synths excites you then M4L is most likely for you".

While it is true that M4L may have a rather steep learning curve the amount of information which is at your disposal to get a good grip on the basics is (IMO) overwhelming.

What I personally consider the absolute brilliant part when it comes to M4L is that you don't really need programming skills; a good dose of logical thinking and being able to read documentation & instructions can get you a long way.

Note its not just midi audio or instruments. Sure; their nature is, but most of my Max audio effects are actually small tools and utilities I'm using to get stuff going.

Still, with the will & drive for learning I think you should be ok. Max (the language behind it) really allows you to make things as easy or hard as you want to.

I was in a similar position as you Lovefyi and took Cycling '74 up on the 30 free trial. You can download some other people's creations and look under the hood to see how things are working. After about a week of playing around and being blown away by the power of Max for Live, I made the jump today. I feel like I have a whole new workstation but excited to attack that learning curve!

A similar question for the Max for Live world: I'm having trouble finding a tutorial source that starts at the basics. Any suggestions? The list at 

https://cycling74.com/docs/max5/vignettes/core/live_resources_tutorials.html

 looks awesome but I don't see these live sets in my library.

I was in a similar position as you Lovefyi and took Cycling '74 up on the 30 free trial.  You can download some other people's creations and look under the hood to see how things are working.  After about a week of playing around and being blown away by the power of Max for Live, I made the jump today.  I feel like I have a whole new workstation but excited to attack that learning curve!

A similar question for the Max for Live world:  I'm having trouble finding a tutorial source that starts at the basics.  Any suggestions?  The list at https://cycling74.com/docs/max5/vignettes/core/live_resources_tutorials.html looks awesome but I don't see these live sets in my library.


Ok, after doing some more searching, I found the a master list of Max tutorials: 

https://cycling74.com/docs/max5/tutorials/max-tut/maxindex.html

Doesn't seem like the place a new user to Max for Live.

Ok, after doing some more searching, I found the a master list of Max tutorials: https://cycling74.com/docs/max5/tutorials/max-tut/maxindex.html

Doesn't seem like the place a new user to Max for Live.


Actually it is. Don't forget that 'Max for Live' really is "Max" inside Ableton Live. So in order to get started with it you'd want to get to know Max first.

Apart from that online link you can also find all the documentation inside M4L itself, as explained in the other thread.

M4L really lets you think bigger picture. You go from using ableton like everyone else does to really just making it your own personalized instrument. I just started using M4L about 4 months ago to make it easier to use live while playing another instrument. I went from just trying to change the default behavior of an APC40 to building my own software for controlling live with a Line6 FBV Shortboard MKII. Once you realize what you can do you find that anything you can think of you can implement. I can control live better with my feet than a lot of people can with an APC. It's pretty amazing when you get into it. I've also started trying to use it to control some MIDI based lighting and I haven't even tried to do anything with audio. It's amazing software and completely liberating once you get into it.

M4L really lets you think bigger picture.  You go from using ableton like everyone else does to really just making it your own personalized instrument.  I just started using M4L about 4 months ago to make it easier to use live while playing another instrument.  I went from just trying to change the default behavior of an APC40 to building my own software for controlling live with a Line6 FBV Shortboard MKII.  Once you realize what you can do you find that anything you can think of you can implement.  I can control live better with my feet than a lot of people can with an APC.  It's pretty amazing when you get into it.  I've also started trying to use it to control some MIDI based lighting and I haven't even tried to do anything with audio.  It's amazing software and completely liberating once you get into it.


Hello all (an absolutely newb question, non-technical)