Cycling '74

What does your 2022 Max to-do list look like? If you're looking to expand your Max repertoire or add a few new tools to your belt, we've gathered 10 of the latest recommended Max Packages that will expand how you use Max in 2022.  All of these can be installed by browsing in the Max Package Manager (File->Show Package Manager) and installing from there. 

Max Hardware Library - This package focusses on connecting to and communicating with Bluetooth enabled hardware. Could be a great starting place for a wireless performance controller project in combination with an Arduino or similar device with Bluetooth module attached.

ML.star by Benjamin D Smith - Explore what machine learning can do for your Max patches with this well-presented toolkit of ML techniques. You’ll want to set aside time to wrap your head around the ideas to get the most from it, but there’s plenty of help files available to get you started if you just want to jump in.

AudioMix by Manuel Poletti - Even if you’ve come to Max to free yourself of tracks and mixing boards, this concise set of ready-to-use components will come in handy when you need to patch together a mini-DAW in your patch.

Cv.jit by Jean-Marc Pelletier - Although you’ve probably heard of cv.jit, or even used it before, the latest version includes a number of improvements from the latest OpenCV libraries and is overall more stable. It’s hard not to come up with new ideas while browsing the examples included.

Sound Design Toolkit - Ready to make some sound effects? This super fun package gives you tools that allow you to mimic real-world physical sounds or invent imaginary machines, alien creatures, or sci-fi environments.

VSynth by Kevin Kripper - Kevin has been providing steady updates to this analog-inspired video synthesis package since its first release. Play around with the amazing library of examples and try your hand at some abstract video. 

XY Coordinates Generator Pack - Is it time to liven up your control signals? This package includes a rich set of tools created with Gen to generate a broad variety of spatially animated control signals.

MC Movement Studies - Explore unique ways to use multichannel audio along with procedural JSUI visualizations inspired by Daniel Shiffman’s “The Nature of Code”

Jitter Tools - A small set of tools to extend Jitter. Try out jit.gl.meshwarp, a full-featured interactive video mapping tool for creating unique projection setups. Also included are polymovie (like polybuffer~ for videos) and jit.gl.textureset (like jit.matrixset for textures).

Upshot - Benjamin Van Esser’s extensive collection of modular music tools includes everything from sequencers and event generators to instruments and audio effects. This package is full of gold for generative music makers.

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Open up the Max Package Manager and check them out.

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Ten Packages to Try in 2022

Andrew Benson

We tend to focus a lot on new Max objects in the Package Manager, but with Max there are many ways to solve problems without compiling externals. This Package Manager release brings a collection of highly practical Max abstractions from McGill University's IDMIL, designed with music and digital orchestra projects in mind.  Looking at this package, all of the well-organized abstractions are clearly the result of real-world patching that we can all learn a few tricks from.

The Digital Orchestra Toolbox (DOT) started its life back in 2006 as a repository of useful MaxMSP functions for the CIRMMT/McGill Digital Orchestra Project. Over the years it has grown and evolved as it was used in subsequent projects at McGill and elsewhere, including the development and performance of a number of new digital musical instruments such as the T-Stick and the Spine.

Currently, the DOT includes more than 120 tools, and unlike many packages available for extending Max, it consists only of abstractions rather than compiled external objects. This ensures easy cross-platform functionality, and makes the internal structure and function of the tools viewable, understandable, editable and appropriable by users within Max itself.

Authors: Joseph Malloch, Marlon Schumacher, Stephen Sinclair

You can find and install the Digital Orchestra Toolbox in the Max Package Manager.

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This Package Manager release brings a collection of highly practical Max abstractions from McGill University's IDMIL, designed with music and digital orchestra projects in mind.  They’re elegant and resourceful examples of practical, real-world patching that - by virtue of being abstractions - ensure easy cross-platform use.

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Content You Need: Digital Orchestra Toolbox

This video explores some ideas I've come up with over the past month via performances in NYC, Rochester, and Canada. It's the first performance I'm posting using gibberwocky, a new live coding system that I've developed with Graham Wakefield that integrates with Ableton Live. 
 
A few things to note: 
1. The step sequencer lets you define sequences of different lengths... in a sequence of eight notes, each becomes an 1/8th note, while in a sequence of five notes, each becomes a 1/5. Each value is a hexadecimal number (a-f) specifying velocity. 
2. The modulations are all done using gen~ via Max4Live, and run at audio-rate which much better resolution than what MIDI would typically afford. 
3. The end-user programing language is vanilla JavaScript. 
4. You can find the repo here: http://github.com/charlieroberts/gibberwocky 
5. There's a paper describing the system: https://macdrive.mcmaster.ca/f/e42a9a8783/?raw=1 
6. There's also a version that outputs generic MIDI messages, and a version that targets Max/MSP. Lear more at http://gibberwocky.cc

gibberwocky: Galumphing in Ab

Live-coding continues to grow as a musical performance format, with Algoraves and similar shows popping up all over the place. Graham Wakefield (Cycling '74) and Charlie Roberts (author of the super-popular Gibber environment) have teamed up to integrate the rapid interface and expressive possibilities of live-coding with other environments, allowing performers to leverage the DSP and other capabilities on offer.  

Gibberwocky began as a Max for Live project that exposed Ableton Live's features to coding with the Gibber environment. This last week at NIME, Graham and Charlie introduced a new Max package that offers the same kind of integration with Max features including signal processing in Gen, the Max transport, and message passing of all sorts. 

Our interest in using musical gesture led to an emphasis on continuous modulation in gibberwocky. Declaring modulation graphs, changing them over time, and creating visualizations depicting their state are all heavily prioritized. The dual-emphasis of pattern manipulation and modulation positions gibberwocky somewhat uniquely among live-coding environments.

If you'd like to learn more about Gibberwocky and live-coding in general, I highly recommend reading over the NIME white paper accompanying the package, and installing the Gibberwocky package from the Max Package Manager.  

The popular browser based live-coding environment Gibberwocky connects to Max.

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