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Max/MSP

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oneoftheway

Nov 27, 2002
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#1
Hi Justin

I am looking into Max for sound design mainly but I know it can do heaps more. Although Im quite young Im lucky enough to have gained lots of experience with engineering and production and have no problems running a session. I also have experience with softsynths and hardware synths, programming etc... I dont have experience with software engineering however!!!
Being proficient at Max seems like it would be a valuable skill for someone like myself as I haven't really heard of many who know Max, can run a session, and are good players too. I really like engineering and production, and Im sure Max would be a whole bunch of fun, but technical things for me are a means to and end and I prefer to be playing bass and getting creative at the end of the day.
It seems to me that the majority of Max users cant play a traditional instrument and come from hardcore midi programming backgrounds. I have rarely heard of it being used by pop artists except for more experimental types such as Bjork and Aphex Twin who are of course anomalies in that world.

Do you think it has been an asset to you in terms of what it can offer on a session and when writing, especially considering the steep learning curve and time one supposedly has to invest in it to get results?
How do you incorporate it creatively in what you do as you are obviously more of a player and producer in a traditional sense than a Damian Taylor computer music type producer?


Im always seeking skills to set myself apart from the crowd and in 2012 Max really is cutting edge tech. Im just worried that it ultimately wont be very useful for rock music production!

Thanks for taking the time to help me out as I really don't know any other people who could answer my Max questions in this context.

Thanks again!:)
 
#3
oneoftheway said:
Im always seeking skills to set myself apart from the crowd and in 2012 Max really is cutting edge tech. Im just worried that it ultimately wont be very useful for rock music production!
Click to expand...

The thing about Max is, once you get some proficiency with it, you can pretty much do whatever you can think of. It's typically not a quick "means to an end" as you say though, at least not in my experience, but I don't use Live, so I can't speak to using Max for Live. If you're a Live guy, that may be up your alley as there are tons of cool M4L devices available that other folks have made, that with a little Max know-how, you can pretty easily modify to suit your purposes.
You do have to put in some serious time learning it in order to build your own things though.
I've been heavily into Max for about 4 years, working in it as it's own environment--my initial goal was to have a way to play/produce music and multimedia projects in a non-linear way (and get me out of Logic which I'm in all day long usually). So I built patches to do that, whacking together parts from existing patches(which is the best way to start). Then I got a bit more into synthesis within Max (already knowing how synths work will help alot of course). Sometimes I bounce back and forth between Max and Logic on a piece. Sometimes it's just for one little sound. Sometimes it's part of the overall concept of how the piece is created. As for using it in a rock context, why not? Again, it's up to you. If you wanna do things the traditional way, it might not be up your alley. But it can generate cool ideas--I created a patch for a garage rock artist so he could trigger vintage video clips from his Teisco guitar. This then inspired other things and that patch turned into a customized performance/recording interface(using video too), which then went on to inspire new songs. It's really open-ended.
Just try the free demo and play around with some of the tutorial patches--see if it excites you. I will say (again speaking only as a standalone Max guy as opposed to a M4L guy) I couldn't really envision using it in the midst of a typical "rock" session to do something super quick too often, at least not from scratch--it'd be more the kind of thing where'd I'd hunker down after everyone went home and go down the rabbit hole then (and re-surface the next morning;).
 
#4
Thanks for your thoughts guys! The fact that it can do anything really appeals to me a great deal. I guess I was just a little put off as their forums seems to be comprised of mostly academics and conceptual artists. Its really cool to hear people are using it as part of their workflow to create popular music. Im off to get the demo and go down the rabbit hole!
 
#6
oneoftheway said:
Thanks for your thoughts guys! The fact that it can do anything really appeals to me a great deal. I guess I was just a little put off as their forums seems to be comprised of mostly academics and conceptual artists. Its really cool to hear people are using it as part of their workflow to create popular music. Im off to get the demo and go down the rabbit hole!
Click to expand...

Be sure and check out some of the "examples" that come with it, not JUST the tutorials(or you might get...discouraged at first). There will be a folder called "examples" with all kinds of patches in it. I still go back to those all the time to pluck things out. It IS true that if you go on that forum and start asking questions without having done the tutorials you can get some attitude, but generally everyone is very helpful (again, I can only speak from Max-land, not M4L).
Check out the "Projects" page too to see what people are doing--it's not all art installations and wacky motion-sensor thingamajigs--there's some albums of actual music on there too!
 

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