max/msp

max/msp is really quite old. it's been around in the academic crowd for many years... (at least a decade)...

it's completely useful...

ultimately, does it matter?

really, why do people find it constantly necessary to move onto new instruments? why not pick one and become a master?

m.

Maybe I haven't found the best instrument to fit my creative needs. Or maybe I want to integrate different production techniques into my process. Besides isn't it for building instruments rather than an instrument itself?

Obv. it is useful to many people but i was hoping somebody would talk about how they personally found use for it and maybe how it was to learn.

fuck old. max msp is the most flexible way to make sound straight from the numbers. if you know C then the whole thing should be a breeze.

ok see i realize it is old but it has only come to my attention in the past year. and it has only really become visible in the music i've been listening to relatively recently. ddd, and forgive me here, but how breezy for somebody who does not know C? or should i not be fooling with it in this case...

sorry for the tone of my post above... i didn't mean to come off that way. i think when you suggested that max/msp might be 00 passe, i was a little annoyed. i wasn't trying suggest it was too old to use. just that it's hardly in-style or out-of-style. it's just become more in vogue because laptopism has risen forward and so the arcane matters of it are becoming known.

furthermore, something like max/msp... is DEFINITELY an instrument. even a guitar pedal is an instrument. sure, it's dependent on an input signal, but it's still playable. operating one well is a matter of an artistic and technical process.

but whatever... my idiocies aside...

do you have any programming knowledge?

if not, C can be learned by book but is best learned in a class. anyone with a reasonable intelligence and a good instructor can learn it and become pretty proficient.

it's definitely a curve.
m.

Its ok. I actually meant the above as a rolling eyes sort of reference to the same glamour vogue aura you mention, so my error for coming across that way. Years ago I once attempted C but didn't have the discipline. So I suppose that comes highly recommended in utilizing max to its full potential, hmm might have to try again.

Why not try PD (Pure Data) instead - its free and open source, totally cross platform, Linux, Win, and OSX, has a respectable video component Gem, which is gettting to the level of Nato. and its written by Miller Pukette.

I've been meaning to get into it but Reaktor is just so much easier and faster to get results.

max is insane. the guy who set up the media lab at my university was a freak with it. he would set up certain parameters and it would improvise entire songs based on those rules. a dance troupe set up motion-detectors that changed their video projections and the music itself based on what dance moves they did. of course you have to program it all yourself :P

Has anyone used nato.+55+3d ? It does look awesome.

Netochka Nezvanova... she and i used to argue on another digital art list some time ago... it's weird to see her making her appearances again.... she's a total max guru who would get shut out a lot because of her #$!@#$! speak. she's a total genius. i've always avoided some of her software because she'd write a lot of stuff that would flat out crash windows machines on purpose. that sort of anti-american, anti-nato eastern block attitude.... which, you have to admire, but damn... at what cost? would you listen to a cd that totally melted your cd player down? and what if you didn't know if it would or not?

anyways... if you've heard good things...perhaps it's worth a lookie...

m.

I have a copy of her CD "kr0p3r0m: a9ff" (something like that, anyway) It is a total headfukc. A friend of mine was on some mail list that she was on, and got into a row w/her. This was, like a couple of years ago. He still goes on about it! Her websites are amazing.....

yeah... you just... you knew she was interesting... and i didn't care if she thought i was american korporate bubblegum... i totally agree about her sites. she was just part of the crowd... the early art crowd that wasn't afraid to get their hands dirty with the net before it was much easier to use.
m.