David Zicarelli

I'm pleased to announce that Cycling '74 will be hosting its first user conference next year, Expo '74. The conference will run three days from April 22-24, 2009 and will be held at the new (and intensely colored) Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. I'd like to tell you why we decided to put on this event and what you can expect to happen if you attend.

Let me start by saying that I am not a huge fan of meetings, whether big or small. For one thing, I wonder about burning so much fossil fuel to bring people together primarily so they can try to sell things to each other. Another thing that bugs me about academic conferences in particular is that a bunch of people show up, give their presentations, and rarely interact except on an informal basis. I've often felt after attending conferences that it would have been better simply to arrange a big dinner.


Our corporate bias against meetings has meant that, up until this point, we've avoided taking the path of Adobe (whose user conference is called Max, of all things). But over the past couple of years we've come to the conclusion that educated users spread the word about our software better than advertising slogans, so we've decided to replace our more traditional marketing activities in favor of what I like to think of as "social and educational" activities. For example, we now post on average one article on Max techniques and applications on our web site every week. Even more in the social domain, we've begun conducting workshops in places where it would be difficult for beginning users to obtain Max training. Once we did that, more advanced users began to ask what we were going to do for them.

The inspiration for Expo '74 actually occurred a few years ago, when a number of us were invited to participate in two Max/MSP/Jitter workshops sponsored by the Forum Neues Musiktheater in Stuttgart. This was the first time that a substantial crew of Cycling '74 employees had been forced to teach the software together. The experience was delightful and moreover, we were inspired to add a number of cool features to the software based on our interaction in Stuttgart with both beginning and advanced users. Fundamentally, I realized the value in making a real connection with people, beyond e-mail, who were working with the code I was writing. My hardened attitude about conferences was starting to weaken. Unfortunately, the FNM organization no longer exists, so if we are to recreate the experience, we will have to do it ourselves!

We hope this conference will be a chance to strengthen the connections within the Max community -- not just between Max objects, but among people. Our community is incredibly generous with both code and techniques, but we think even deeper levels of connection and collaboration can be established if we get the community together in one place.

We'll be filling in more details over the coming months, but at this point, it's our intention that the conference will feature the following:

An intensive course on Max intended for intermediate users and sessions on specific topics of interest to all users

Presentations for developers wishing to extend the Max environment, as well as presentations by developers who have already created powerful extensions

Individual project consulting sessions to help you move forward on the work you want to do

A "science fair" where you can see demos of cool projects and share techniques and resources

Geeky social and cooperative events inspired by the live patching competition we organized in Stuttgart

An opportunity to hear what about works and what doesn't work when teaching the software

Feedback sessions, so you can tell us what you like and don't like about our work

The basic plan is to run the course in parallel to the developer sessions in the mornings, then get everyone together for larger sessions in the afternoons and evenings. Another thing I should mention: we aren't committing to doing one of these conferences every year (see fossil fuel concern above). So, we hope you'll mark your calendars for April 22-24 and stay tuned for more details about this fun event. As we prepare the agenda for the conference, if you have any questions, please feel to contact the event coordinator, Lilli Wessling Hart.

I'm pleased to announce that Cycling '74 will be hosting its first user conference next year, Expo '74. The conference will run three days from April 22-24, 2009 and will be held at the new (and intensely colored) Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. I'd like to tell you why we decided to put on this event and what you can expect to happen if you attend...

announcing-expo-74-our-first-user-conference

Announcing Expo '74: Our First User Conference

jayhardesty

Max SDK and Max for Live were used to create a Max external and a Max for Live device to serve as a prototype for a mobile app that hybridizes and morphs musical material in real time. 

The algorithms themselves are Objective-C++ code compiled as a Max external, which in turn becomes part of a Max for Live device. The device provides a GUI to control musical morphing, and routes note data between Ableton Live and the Max external.

replayer-real-time-melody-morphing

Replayer: real-time melody morphing

juan

Ignacio Viano

All instances of the project where created with Max 5

programming-max-5

Programming Max 5

V.J.

EAMIR (Electro-Acoustic Musically Interactive Room) is a collection of interactive music systems that allow individuals, including those with mild and profound disabilities, to create a unique musical expression without the physical and technical limitations found in the study of traditional acoustic instruments (e.g. – violin, guitar, etc.) while allowing individuals with some musical training to help shape the performance in terms of dynamics, tempo, tonality, etc.

project42-eamir

EAMIR

Both the audio circuit and the UI were entirely realized within Max 5.

nasenflugeltanz-sample-triggering-on-max-5

NASENFLÜGELTANZ - Sample Triggering on Max 5

danieleghisi

andrea agostini

Authors: Daniele Ghisi  and Andrea Agostini 

bach: automated composer's helper is a cross-platform set of patches and externals for Max, aimed to bring the richness of computer-aided composition into the real-time world.

bach provides you with two new data types: rational numbers and lllls (an acronym for Lisp-like linked lists), the latter being a list capable to contain other lllls in itself, a bit like a Lisp list. In addition to that, it includes a large collection of tools for operating upon these new types and a number of advanced facilities and graphical interfaces for musical notation, with support for microtonal accidentals of arbitrary resolution, measured and non-measured notation, polymetric notation, support for MusicXML files and much more.

bach is a completely independent project by composers Andrea Agostini and Daniele Ghisi. For this reason its main focus is on musical representation, analysis and composition. Nonetheless, the data types it provides, along with their related tools, may have a much broader area of application.

bach is distributed as freeware and is still in the alpha phase. To obtain the latest version of this software, please refer to the official website www.bachproject.net.


bach-automated-composers-helper

bach: automated composer's helper

Ben Carey

Markov chain patch for creating probabilistic automations based on XY pad movements.


xy-markov-player

XY Markov Player

Both the audio circuit and the presentation of the patch were entirely realized within Max 5.

telemusik-structure-6-and-7-on-max-5

TELEMUSIK Structure 6 and 7 on Max 5

Julien Bayle

It is a max for live device for Ableton Live.

the-matrix-for-ableton-live-2

The MatriX for Ableton Live

👽R∆J∆ The Resident ∆lien👽

Max/MSP was used to create everything from the ground up. A clock-looking sequencer(rotating around a 3x3 grid of monome leds) was coded in C using the Max5 SDK for the monome interface. Everything else was patched together using standard included objects of the Max/MSP/Jitter environment.

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