Extended Instruments in Max

Max has been used to extend instrumental performances in unique ways since the earliest days of the software. To explore what performers today are doing with Max, we reached out to three artists who are extending their instruments with Max - Uriel Barthélémi, John Baylies, and Jacob Johnson - and asked them to share some patches with us. They shared patches designed to extend drums, sousaphone, and guitar respectively - but the approaches used in these patches could be applied to any extended instrument of your choosing.

Read on to learn more about these artists and download their patches below.

Uriel Barthélémi / @urielbarthelemi

Uriel: A patch for triggering sound and visual from a drum kit. Snare and kick trigger their own parts, while the floor tom makes variations on the snare and kick parts. Designed for use with drum triggers, but you can use any basic contact mics or regular mics instead. Based on a solo performance called “Rêves Accaparés” commissioned by Intonal Festival 2021 (I.A.C. & Inkonst – Malmö)

Download Uriel's patch
Find more of Uriel's work on Instagram

John Baylies / @sousasteps

John: This patch is a fun little live looping rig that could make for a great encore at the end of a recital. Three drum clips serve as backing tracks, which use a stutter effect that tastefully auto-triggers. Use the 1, 2, or 3 key to start a drum clip, then press the spacebar to record an 8-bar loop with your instrument. Drum clips 1 and 3 are linked to a ducker that lowers the volume of the looper whenever the kick drum hits.

There are a few effects pre and post loop, which adjust themselves depending on whether you're recording a loop, or playing a solo over the loop. To keep your tone clean, a crossover filter allows bass frequencies to bypass the effect chain, and an "envelope crossfade" allows your attacks to be effected differently than your sustains.

Additionally, the plugin_or_rnbo_selector abstraction allows you to substitute any of the RNBO effects (compressor, pitch shifter, auto filter, chorus) with a plugin of your choice. Pressing the spacebar a second time will fade out the loop, and you can press the spacebar a third time to record another loop while the first one fades out.

Download John's patch
Find more of John's work (with an LED-lit sousaphone!) on Instagram

Jacob Johnson / @_eventuate

Aside from a few short and casual tenures in some bands, about 2 years ago I returned to seriously playing the guitar again—following an extended hiatus in which I explored Max and modular synthesis. In coming back to my original musical passion, I felt compelled to embark on a journey to bridge the gap between what felt like two distinct musical identities: my guitar-playing self and my experimental-electronic-music self.

This patch, dubbed "gtrperc," evolved from my fascination with the percussive "thumping" technique that has become quite trendy in progressive guitar music. The inherently transient nature of this playing style combined with the wider range of notes from an eight-string guitar got me thinking about the use of crossover filters and amplitude threshold detectors to augment my playing with synthesized percussion and/or sample layers.

Inside "gtrperc" you'll find two percussion generators: Thump and Skronk. Thump features a simple pinged filter voice triggered by activity on the lowest strings of my guitar, while Skronk is a slightly more complex version that adds more layers, ring modulation, and noise for a broader range of woody and metallic sounds. For more variety, both sections also feature triggered sample players, which can increment or randomly jump through a provided folder of audio files as triggers are detected.

Tip: the "advanced settings" pop-up window is where you can tweak the crossover and trigger threshold settings for your instrument. The defaults are tuned to my instrument (a very modern eight-string guitar with high-output pickups) and my playing style. Because all guitars and instruments are different, I recommend spending some trial and error time to tune the response of the patch to your liking.
Download Jacob's patch
Find more of Jacob's work on Instagram.