New to max

starr's icon

Hi I have just started using max and was wondering if anyone knows a way to connect max to speakers separate to the computer.

lewis lepton's icon

Hi Sarah,

Well a good, a plausible way to connect speakers separate from your own computer speakers, is to have audio interface.
Or have a hub that deals with the output of your computer, and has separate outputs for speakers to be connected.

Or even, you can do what i do a lot, and use good headphones (not earphones)
You can pick up hubs and interfaces quite cheap, obviously depending what make, features and blah blah blah.

If you want a nice cheap interface, have a look at www.m-audio.com

They make cheap and useable interfaces, there are a lot more choices, but these are good for the price. Plus if you are also doing the msp side as well, they sell midi keyboards and also midi interfaces

Hope this helped

lewis lepton's icon

Also to add onto what i said about m-audio.

They also sell good monitor speakers as well. The BX5's and BX8's

The BX5's are 5 inch coned monitors, very good for small projects and small rooms working in. I think they are 75 watt

The BX8's are 8 inch coned speakers, which provided much more power than the 5 inch models. Obviously only used in bigger rooms. Mainly used for bigger projects. I think these are 130 watt

i was going to get a pair of the BX8's myself, but decided to get some Genelecs instead. A hell more expensive, but you know where your money has gone.

These choices are if you needed some good speakers to get the best sound.

If you need anymore help on things like hardware for audio and midi, just drop me a line

fairesigneaumachiniste's icon

And of course, the max related stuff:

You can change your output/interface in the DSP settings in max.

Options > DSP Status (on a mac)

Then in DSP status:

Driver > Select the interface you speakers are connected to.

Then you can either set the output channels in DSP status so that the default output goes to the outputs on your interface or just type in the correct output numbers on your interface into the DAC~ object.

So if your speakers are connected to outputs 5 and 6, type:

[dac~ 5 6]

ComfortableInClouds's icon
barry threw's icon

Before you go buying hundreds of dollars worth of audio equipment...
plug a set of speakers into the headphone jack on your computer.

On Aug 28, 2008, at 11:36 PM, Sarah wrote:

>
> Hi I have just started using max and was wondering if anyone knows a
> way to connect max to speakers separate to the computer.

barry threw
Media Art and Technology

San Francisco, CA
Work: 857-544-3967
Email: bthrew (at) gmail (dot) com
Web: www.barrythrew.com