Musicians/live sound/max msp

[tillyxengineer]

How many people use max msp for use in live sound? anyone made any programs particularly for monitoring uses for monitoring desks? if there were a max msp patch for a monitoring desk what kind of functions would you like to see on it?

tillyX

[tINY]

What the hell is "max msp"?



-tINY

[travisgarrison]

Originally Posted by tINY

What the hell is "max msp"?



-tINY

Max/MSP is basically a programming language for musical applications. It's rarely the most elegant solution from a programming standpoint, but it's an easy environment to play with digital signal processing, algorithmic composition, etc. Many avant-garde composers use Max/MSP or similar languages for compositions involving live instruments with real-time processing. I'm currently involved in teaching a class on Interactive Music where the students are using Max/MSP to design various interactive music gadgets utilizing a variety of sensors, audio data, etc.

You can check it out here:
http://cycling74.com/products/maxmsp

In response to the original question, I'm not aware of too many people outside of electronic music circles who use Max/MSP. That's not to say it wouldn't be a valuable environment to design live sound applications, however. Have you tried asking over at Cycling 74's Max/MSP e-mail list?

[tillyxengineer]

to tiny - what is written above,

to the person above - yeah will do that, just wanted to see if there were many people who did this sort of thing, i am planning to do a monitor program for my disertation next year and just starting to do a bit of prep work!
tillyX

[macleod]

i have worked with loads of musicians that use max msp on stage i also use max to control lighting with an open dmx usb convertor.
As for creating a monitor desk software you would need a sound card with near zero latency and plenty of ins and outs. so you would end up buying something like a fireface 800 and writing your own software rather than using totalmix that comes with it. I used to reinvent the wheel in max all the time, no i have realized that it is a great interface between different software and controllers etc.

just my 2p

K

[tillyxengineer]

you sound like a man in the know, if you could give me anymore ideas i would be very greatful!
tillyX

[synthoid]

I'm interested in this. I use Kyma in live shows, for mixing, monitoring, and lots of other stuff. I would love to do this kind of thing with Max/MSP but I'm nervous about its stability and don't want to fight against a bunch of latency issues. It is absolutely a great MIDI and audio patching framework however, seems perfect for this application if you can get around latency problems and make it rock-solid.

Is there a published programming interface to the Fireface 800?! I would love to learn more about that. The matrix mixer inside that thing is very useful as it is; it would be terrific to be able to control it more from software.

-synthoid

[tillyxengineer]

kyma? i have never come across this one before could you tell me a bit about it and what you use it for?
thanks
tillyX

[synthoid]

Hi,

Kyma is a hardware / software system for sound design, synthesis, mixing, etc. You can find out more about it at http://symbolicsound.com. The hardware is a multiprocessor DSP system called Capybara. The language used to construct sounds is similar to Max/MSP, in that both of them are streaming macro-dataflow langauges where audio and control data flow along connections between modules.

Kyma is a very stable platform with a fixed (user-selectable) latency, so it is quite nice for live use. Some say that it's a bit pricey. Depends I guess on what you compare it to -- whether the cost of the computer hardware to get a similarly stable version of Max with good interface is included.

-synthoid

[tillyxengineer]

kyma looks cool, expensive tho! i'd like to apply that same sort of thing using max msp. i would like to find any other programs that are similar to max or kyma and see who they would be structured for use within a monitor mix.

thanks
tillyX

[synthoid]

As you say, Kyma is expensive. Of course, it is a hardware system, and a very high-quality one at that, so it's perhaps unfair to a software product like Max. It's very much like the different between PT HD and LE.

The original language of these types is CSound. I think it still has quite a few users.

You might also look at Plogue/Bidule (http://www.plogue.com) and Supercollider (http://www.audiosynth.com).

Max/MSP is the most popular among these types of programs, I think.

-synthoid