Gregory Taylor

Doing book reviews for a newsletter has turned out to be a more subtle practice than I initially expected. If you’re the kind of person who winds up getting book reviews assigned or requested because "...you read all the time, man…", your natural assumption is that you ought to be talking about something that’s relatively recent (e.g. the updated second edition of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists book, or Andrew Nelson’s fascinating The Sound of Innovation: Stanford and the Computer Music Revolution). But if your readership consists of a sizeable number of new users and persons who are enthusiastic but uncertain where to go for answers, you could always spend a little time discussing what a “basic library” might be for the beginner who believes that those book things remain repositories of wisdom. 

Curtis Roads’ book "The Computer Music Tutorial" falls squarely into the latter category. It is one of the few standard books in the field for beginners and seasoned pros alike, full stop. In fact, here’s an interesting piece of secret Max lore for you: Many MSP objects were written by going through chapters in the Computer Music Tutorial and creating implementations based on the material therein (it wasn’t the only source, but it features prominently in MSP’s DNA).

You might wonder how a book from the mid-late 1990s has managed to remain relevant and a touchstone to some many readers. The first answer is that it’s been regularly updated over the years to reflect changes in the field (and the older materials on things like user interfaces have slowly been transformed from “current options” to “historical solutions” along the way). More importantly, it still provides a clear and reference-studded introduction to nearly every aspect of computer music concepts, software, interfaces, composition, and research.

The scope of the tutorial is encyclopedic in breadth, but – like a good encyclopedia – divided up into bite (byte?) sized morsels that assist in fighting off the feeling of being overwhelmed. The flow from basic concepts to more advanced subjects is smooth and clear (thanks to outlines at the start of major sections and plenty of illustrations and example), and each section has its own massive collection of pointers to where you can go next when researching any topic at the end of the volume. While my point here is to aim you at the book rather than doing a book report, here’s a very brief overview of its contents:

Fundamental Concepts: concepts of digital audio, computer programming for musical applications

Sound Synthesis: a comprehensive overview of synthesis techniques

Mixing and Signal Processing: from basic signal processing to mixing, spatialization, reverberation

Sound Analysis: pitch and rhythm recognition, spectrum analysis

The Musician's Interface: an overview of methods and approach for interfaces

Internals and Interconnections: MIDI and connection standards

Appendices: Fourier analysis, a fantastic collection of references, and indexes for names and subjects (!)

Just for fun, I thought I'd end this piece with a set of mini-reviews. I asked a number of friends and colleagues to say a few words about this book (of course, they've all got copies of their own). Here's a sampling of their responses. 

"I can’t think of any book about computer music that I’ve owned for longer and looked at as consistently as CMT (yes, the book apparently has its own acronym)."

"I tell my students, 'Read this and then ask me questions.'"

"Curtis (Roads) told me that he brings several copies with him to conferences - it's his business card."

"It is one of my 10 desert island books."

"I used to look at the Computer Music Tutorial often when I just didn't know what to do. Somehow all the dry descriptions of audio processes would always get me thinking about a new approach to sound that I hadn't thought of before, and I'd be back in MaxMSP tinkering right away."

"The title’s a misnomer if you assume that 'Tutorial' means 'a cookbook full of tips for your X programming.' Instead, it covers all the basics, explains how they got to be the basics (and why history matters), and helps you figure out what you don’t know."

"This is the largest book that I own that I actually use."

If hope this pointer is of some help to our younger/newer users. So long, and um... happy reading!


book-review-the-computer-music-tutorial

Book Review: The Computer Music Tutorial

Darwin Grosse

V.J. Manzo has been a busy guy lately. He’s written several books, created new Max object libraries, worked on updating MaxObjects.com and set up a non-profit arrangement for the EAMIR.org site/project. All this while being an active teacher and Max education champion. Today we are going to look at this recent book release by Manzo and collaborator Will Kuhn.

There are many different approaches to teaching Max, music and technology; I happen to find Manzo’s work to embrace a ‘populist’ method: have fun, make things and learn this stuff by enjoying yourself. Interactive Composition takes this on full-steam: Ableton Live (along with Max for Live) is used to create music of many genres, including Ambient, Pop/Rock, Electroacoustic, Hip-Hop/Trap, House, Dubstep and more. Each genre is used as a launching point to learn about both Live and Max techniques that can help in the compositional effort.

The book opens with 56 pages of basic for Live and Max use, then dives right into Ambient Music and the development of Synth Pads (using Live devices) and floating melodies (designing an MFL MIDI device). Each genre adds to the complexity of both the Live and Max content, leading to some interesting and complex creations. The book ends with a section on creating ‘monster rigs’ using a hybrid Max/Live system, and leaves the reader feeling like anything is possible.

I loved this book, and have already gifted it to some friends as a great way to expand their knowledge of both stylistic and technical concepts. It’s a great way to learn, but it also sets up an excellent approach for teaching music technology in a unique and fun way. Highly, highly recommended.

Find Interactive Composition at these locations:

Note: You can hear me interview V.J. Manzo in this week’s Art + Music + Technology podcast, found here:  http://artmusictech.libsyn.com/podcast-106-vj-manzo


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Book Review: Interactive Composition

Alessandro Cipriani & Maurizio Giri (one of the most active Max-focused writing units around), introduced the first volume of their ‘Electronic Music and Sound Design’ series a few years ago - first in Italian, and then English translations by David Stutz, followed a bit later by a second volume. Both of these books that were published in real-world paper form by Contemponet. But about a year ago, they created what I think is a masterpiece: iBook-formatted versions of Electronic Music and Sound Design Vol. 1 and Electronic Music and Sound Design Vol. 2, complete with embedded sound and video that pushes the definition of media tool training.

This iBook version covers all of the material from volumes one and two of the original paper books – which is to say: it covers audio processing basics, and Max as a music-making, audio-generating system from beginner level to a very advanced level. It covers basic programming techniques, compositional concepts and audio object use. If you are a serious musician that wants to attack Max, these books will get you there.

Viewing the book on an iPad is pretty interesting – while it only supports landscape mode, the font is really clear and readable, and I didn’t really have any problems working with the text. The illustrations are impeccable; in some ways, it seems clearer to me than the printed version! 

About the only thing that I missed was an overview Table of Contents. The iBooks format segments the TOC in a way that wasn’t as useful for browsing the book’s breadth.

The reason that I missed the table of contents is connected to the book’s strengths, hovever. One of the things that I appreciate about this book is the depth of its coverage. Rather than providing glossy overviews of concepts, it provides depth and detail on the theory, patching and resulting output of the material it covers. While this means that the book is going to require some time and careful attention to get the most out of it, you can gain significant expertise by following along with the authors’ approach - it repays your attention.

And there’s also the question of size. Since this is a digital book, it’s perfect for traveling by virtue of being “bigger on the inside” - it takes up no more space than the iPad it lives on. The ability to have this book, my OpenGL reference library and a couple of other books at my fingertips no matter where I find myself while on the road is awesome.

But the real winner here is the interactive material. Having audio playback makes some of the examples come alive, and the video material provides information that would take hundreds of words to otherwise explain. Writing a book about media art process is always difficult - you don’t have the ability to say “It sounds like this…” with paper books, but Cipriani and Giri take full advantage of the iBook format to do exactly that.

If you are interested in music and sound design, you will find an endless fount of information in this book. I’ve been doing this sort of work for a decade-and-a-half, and I still spend time with this book to give me ideas or remind me of techniques I’d long forgotten. On the other hand, it is specific to music and audio - you’ll have to look elsewhere for enlightenment on video processing, OpenGL programming or Gen development. That said, if you are into audio, music, generative sound systems or the like, you’ll almost certainly find something here that will tickle your fancy.


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Book Review: Electronic Music and Sound Design Vols. 1 & 2 – the iBooks edition

Lilli Wessling Hart

As a perfect end to the first day Expo '74 2011, our friends at the Computer Music Center at Columbia University are hosting a free event for expo attendees beginning at 7pm. Take this opportunity to see some amazing projects and gear, and to meet some outstanding people in the New York-area Max user community.

Five reasons why you need to join us there:

Columbia will have all their studios open.

Students will be showing installations or demo-ing work in the studios.

There will be historic pieces of gear out on display, including the RCA Mark II synthesizer and an original modular Buchla.

There will be live performances from current Columbians and recent alums.

Take the subway (#1 Line) to 125th Street Station. CMC is only 1/2-block away from the station at 632 West 125th Street (Prentis Hall), 3rd floor.  (Just down the street from the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater.)


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An Evening at Columbia

Cycling '74

Thomas Resch will be leading one of nine community-driven workshops at Expo '74 in Brooklyn this October. Read on for more information about his workshop and some history of his work.

At the Electronic Studio/Research Department of the University of Music Basel we have been developing the external object note~ for Max/MSP.  The essential concept of note~ is that of a classic MIDI sequencer: recording, editing and playing back control data. It provides a GUI, a scripting interface and feedback for every interaction so its functionality can be extended by common Max/MSP objects.  This workshop is an introduction to note~ for Max, explaining its features, how to work with it and expand its functionality and integrate it into the Max environment.

To participate in this workshop, you will need a laptop (Mac or Windows) with Max/MSP installed.

I studied Information Technology at Technical University Berlin and Audio Design at the University of Music Basel. Currently, I am working as a research fellow at University of Music Basel with the main focus on note~ for Max. I also work as a sound engineer for TV-postproduction and classical/pop recordings and I love my band "Sherry Black and the Port Authority" which has never played a concert and released only one album in 4 1/2 years.

I started using Max in 2002 because my Audiodesign Professor told me to do so. At that time I had really no idea what Max is capable of.

What technology or person's work intrigues you most right now?

Since my car ride back from Hamburg to my little home village Schlangenbad last week I'd have to say Bob Dylan.

What is the most exciting part of attending Expo '74?

To finally meet some of those Max people who always answered my developer forum questions immediatelly and do all the cool stuff.

Thomas Resch talks about his Expo '74 workshop.

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Introduction to note~

Andrea Agostini will be leading one of nine community-driven workshops at Expo '74 in Brooklyn this October. Read on for more information about his workshop and some history of his work.

This workshop will focus "bach: automated composer's helper", a freely downloadable library of Max patches and externals for music notation, sequencing and computer-aided composition in the real-time world. Students will learn how to use bach's musical notation editors for generating and displaying scores in real time; and how to take advantage of bach's powerful list processing tools for operating algorithmically on symbolic musical data. The workshop will not focus on music theory or algorithmic composition in itself, and participants will not need to be experts in music formalization or analysis. The approach will be very hands-on, as the aim of the workshop is to provide a practical introduction to this extremely versatile set of tools.

To participate in this workshop, you will need a laptop (Mac or Windows) with Max and, if possible, bach installed. No need for MSP or Jitter.

I am a composer mostly based in Italy and France, with a strong preference for carefully planned music (whether it is rock'n'roll, western classical and contemporary music or Balinese gamelan). I have been fiddling with computers since my childhood, and at some point it was quite obvious for me to start doing computer music and music- and art-related computer programming. I have been a student, and later a composer in research, at IRCAM, mainly focusing on sound synthesis. My latest work is a new, completely electronic music for the 1925 movie "Wunder der Schöpfung", a commission from Cinemathèque du Louvre that will be premiered on September 19 in Paris.

I started in 2004 under the guidance of my former composition teacher, because he thought it was a too powerful tool for me to ignore it. Shortly after, I was offered a job by a theatre company who was looking for a computer musician, and I did a lot of Max programming for them - which helped me boost my Max skills at a very fast pace.

About technology, I am crazy about advanced additive synthesis as it can be found in Pianoteq or Synful, and I dream of a synthesis engine of this kind, but more flexible. I'm pretty sure that when this will happen we will experience a new, great leap in sound synthesis.

And then, I'm extremely fascinated by generative music systems, such as improptu and David Cope's work. This is a world I don't know much about - which I want to fix very soon !

Andrea Agostini talks about his Expo '74 workshop.

bach-automated-composers-helper

Bach: Automated Composer's Helper

Andrew Benson

Our Italian friends Maurizio Giri and Alessandro Cipriani, authors of Electronic Music and Sound Design, tell us why their book is worth checking out and offer insight into its writing in this interview with Cycling '74.

How did you first get started on the book?  What gave you the idea to make a textbook focussed on MaxMSP? 

It has been many years since Alessandro wrote a book about Csound with Riccardo Bianchini, entitled "Virtual Sound". Meanwhile, in teaching our courses we developed new ideas about electronic music education. We now think that MaxMSP is a great software to implement our ideas about a "Theory+Practice" course.

I understand that the book was originally written in Italian.  Did you do your own translation to English as well?

No, we and our publisher ContempoNet launched a call on the Cycling ’74 forum and on a few sites for freelance translators looking for somebody who would be fluent in Italian, a good writer in English, but who would also know both the theory of sound synthesis, signal processing, and  have a good knowledge of Max/MSP. Several people answered and we finally chose David Stutz, with whom we had an intense collaboration, discussing all the details and the nuances of both languages. Finally the three of us learned a lot from this translation process. We’ve been told that somebody is starting to use both books to learn a second technical language.

One thing I really appreciate about the book is the integration of practical examples, like the "Algorithm Completion" exercises.  Did this idea come out of teaching experience?

Yes, definitely. The worst case in electronic music learning is to remain passive, to understand all the patches and the theory, but remain unable to correct, to invent, to be creative and active. The practical chapters of the book also include many activities. These activities and tasks activate the knowledge and practical skills of the reader. When learning a foreign language, there is a gap between what one knows and what one is able to use in practice. The same is true of a programming language: a student can understand how algorithms work without being able to build them from scratch. The activities in this book that concentrate on replacing parts of algorithms, completing unfinished algorithms, correcting algorithms with bugs, and reverse engineering, have been included to pose problems to which the readers are encouraged to find their own solutions.  This causes the learning process to become more active and creative. Our approach involves interactions between the perception of sounds and the knowledge deriving from reading the book and doing the practical activities, but also interactions between these two factors and the user’s own skills and creativity.

With the vast amount of information online, I'm intrigued to see the sudden interest in printed books on MaxMSP, both yours and Francisco Colasanto's Spanish-language book.  What can we gain from a printed textbook that is different from what you might find online or in the software?

It’s not so important whether a book is physical or virtual, it’s the project behind it that really counts, as well as the integration with the software material (we have hundreds of patches, interactive examples, etc.) The goal of a book like ours is to create an integrated path: it’s not just heterogeneous material, it’s not just information on a specific kind of synthesis, it’s not just a MaxMSP manual. We teach the reader to create sounds with MaxMSP, but the real value is in the integration and completeness of the whole concept: you learn to program MaxMSP while also learning theory and applying those skills and knowledge to creating sound. A person might start from scratch and end up dealing with physical modeling!

How did you guys first get involved with MaxMSP?  Did you learn Max in a University setting?

Alessandro: I have been teaching, working and writing on Csound and Computer Music Theory for a long time. Only 5 years ago I decided to add MaxMSP to my courses, because of its worldwide use in live performance, and also because of the different approach towards programming. The possibilities of control of automations of parameters on a timeline born with Max for Live reinforced my idea that MaxMSP can be very useful both for composing and for teaching sound synthesis and signal processing, and I used the writing of the book to deepen my knowledge of this software in relationship with the theory.

Maurizio: I first met Max at the “Colloquio di Informatica Musicale” (the Italian computer music conference) in Genoa in 1991. Zack Settel presented the IRCAM Max/FTS, a system capable of realtime audio synthesis (which was amazing at the time). A few months later I purchased Max v. 2.2 from Opcode. Since then I used it for almost all my electronic compositions, and for teaching. I think it is an invaluable tool to “dive into” electronic music concepts.

What resources did you rely on when you were learning to use MaxMSP?

The reference manual, the tutorials, the help patches and the Max mailing-list/forum. The forum was (and still is) a crucial resource, because you end up exchanging ideas and information with the best MaxMSP programmers and power users.

In addition to the Max-specific information there is a pretty deep discussion of signal processing, synthesis, and essential sound concepts in the book.  Lot's of informative illustrations I might add.  This is a difficult question to articulate, but do you feel like Max and similar tools create additional challenges or concepts that sound designers and musicians must learn?  Things that aren't covered by music and sound theory or signal processing texts?

Once Giuseppe Di Giugno talked about the difference between teaching to scientific researchers or to musicians/sound designers. He said something that we can roughly summarize like this: for the former group “the real thing” is the formula, or the algorithm; making sounds variating the parameters is just an exercise. For musicians and sound designers making sounds is “the real thing” while learning the algorithm is a means to reach their goals. Obviously this boundary between the two approaches is becoming less and less clear. We are directing our book primarily to musicians and sound designers and because of that we try to invent examples which “sound good” and are stimulating for the practice of composing, so our patches are not just examples to serve the theory. When you follow that approach you find that in some cases the usual theory doesn’t explain some of the reasons that lie behind the good “tips and tricks” that one can use in sound design. Therefore sometimes we had to add some concepts in the theory sections, that was the case for multiple harmonics, filters, and the “grey zones” between the Harmonicity and Inharmonicity of sounds. In addition to that, MaxMSP is a multimedia environment, you can use several body interfaces to control the parameters and that area expands the theory immensely.

I understand this book is the first in a series of books.  What sorts of things should we expect for the next installment? 

The second volume will cover a range of additional topics in the realm of sound synthesis and signal processing, including Dynamics Processing (Compressor, Expander, Gate, Limiter, Envelope Follower etc.), Delay Lines Techniques (Echo, Loop, Flanger, Chorus, Phaser, Pitch Shifting, Comb and Allpass Filters, Karplus-Strong Algorithm, etc.), Reverberation and Spatialization, Digital Audio and Sampled Sounds Manipulation (such as Beat Slicing, Blocks Technique, Scrubbing, etc.), MIDI, OSC, Rewire and Realtime Control, Max for Live.  The third volume will be concerned with Non-Linear Techniques (such as AM and FM Synthesis, Phase Modulation, Phase distortion, Non-Linear Distortion, Waveshaping, etc.), Microsound (Granular Synthesis, Formant Synthesis, Micromontage, etc.), Jitter for Audio, Analysis and Resynthesis, Convolution, Physical Modeling, introduction to Electronic Composition and Procedural Sound Design.

What is the Max user community like in Italy?  Anybody doing amazing work that we should know about?

Today there are many notable Italian artists/programmers. We cannot remember all of them now, so we apologize to the others. In no particular order: Giorgio Sancristoforo, an artist who developes very interesting Max/MSP software, Bruno Zamborlin, a researcher collaborating with IRCAM at the “gesture follower”, Michele Tadini, composer, programmer and teacher, Fabio Cifariello Ciardi, who created a Stock Exchange data sonification installation based on his software named “sMax”, Lorenzo Bianchi (Lorbi) who works on live improvisation and installations, Franz Rosati who developed a stochastic granulator in MaxMSP for his performances, Marco Domenichetti who works with Jitter installations, Guido Montalcini (Smider) a musician who created interesting generative software based on MaxMSP, Alessandro Petrolati, who created software such as Density, a granular synthesis application written in MaxMSP.

There are certainly other people in  Italy that are doing interesting works with Max, and we’d like to hear from them! There is an Italian Forum for Electronic Music and Max/MSP discussion at http://www.virtual-sound.com/forum. 

There is so much here. Besides you guys, did you have any help writing the book or developing the supporting materials?  Did you guys get support from the Max community?

People have been supportive from the very beginning, but it took 4 years of research before the actual project was ready. In particular we were helped by three of our ex students, Gabriele Cappellani, Franz Rosati and Salvatore Mudanò, to do proof-reading, graphics and the interactive examples connected to the theory.

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Putting Max into Words

John

Max was used for many aspects of the course, especially the oscilloscope patches that demonstrate how tuning systems use ratios and the nuances of tuning circular pitch systems.

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Introduction to Pitch Systems in Tonal Music

Our next Max workshop will be held in Los Angeles, CA, and is strictly for beginners. This workshop is specifically for new users of Max or Max for Live, and is intended to provide an introduction to Max, MSP, and Jitter together as a unit in the context of Max and Max for Live.

The workshop concentrates on the basics of working with Max users in a variety of situations including audio and image processing. The topics to be covered in the workshop include an overview of Max, MSP, and Jitter objects in their Max and Max for Live environments, basic audio and video processing techniques, strategies for patch design, user interface design, techniques for better patching, and learning & problem solving.

There is an emphasis on strategies for learning that can be applied after the workshop ends.

Participants are required to bring their own Windows or Mac laptops with the current version of Max installed, a three-month Max/MSP/Jitter software authorization will be provided with the $150 class fee. Max for Live is optional and can be purchased from Ableton.

Click here to purchase a space. Space is limited to 20 students.

date: Tuesday 22 June - Friday 25 June, 9:30 a.m to 5:30 p.m..

location: Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado, Los Angeles, CA 90026

location website: http://machineproject.com/

maxmspjitter-beginner-workshop-in-los-angeles

Max Workshop in Los Angeles

Recently, CNMAT at UC Berkeley held their annual MaxMSP/Jitter summer school classes at their beautiful Arch St. facility just off the UC campus. This year, for the second year in a row, I had the pleasure of teaching the Jitter Night School - a 3-night intensive of focussed tutorials covering a variety of Jitter topics.

The CNMAT Summer School has gained the reputation around the SF Bay Area of being the place to go for anyone looking to improve their patching chops. It seems this reputation has begun to spread around to other parts of the world. This year, we had a really great group, with students flying in from all over the country (and even a couple of people from Australia!) to get their dose of Max from the wizards. In addition to the Jitter Night School, there was a MaxMSP Day School taught by Michael Zbyszynski, the Sensor Workshop with Adrian Freed, and the more advanced MaxMSP Night School taught by Ali Momeni. To my amazement Richard Andrews, the Associate Director at CNMAT, informed me that most of the students had signed up for all of the classes.


Nevertheless, by the time I taught my class, which is the last class in the series, all of the students were still engaged, interested, and ready to dive into some video processing. I was totally impressed. This year, there was also a lot of interest in using the Jitter matrix to manage data for other types of processes besides video. I look forward to seeing what all of my students come up with!

To supplement the intense educational experience, Ali usually puts together a little party on the last night of the Night School, featuring artist talks by some more established members of the MaxMSP/Jitter community. This year, the Friday night guest list included Paul DeMarinis, Sue-C, and Bob Ostertag, and rumor has it that David Zicarelli made a cameo appearance on Wednesday night as well. As with any public event that I go to, it was really fantastic to meet and talk face to face with some of the people who regularly contribute to the forum community, as well as new users with some fresh ideas about how to use Max for their next project.

If you missed out on this year's summer school classes, keep an eye on the CNMAT website for information about next year's series, and check out our Learn page for other educational institutions that are teaching Cycling '74 software.

Recently, CNMAT at UC Berkeley held their annual MaxMSP/Jitter summer school classes at their beautiful Arch St. facility just off the UC campus. This year, for the second year in a row, I had the pleasure of teaching the Jitter Night School - a 3-night intensive of focussed tutorials covering a variety of Jitter topics. 

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