Ma(r)xTutorials
(Rev. 12.2013 ... a modest expansion and
clean-up of last year's major revision.)
An idiosyncratic collection of tutorials, demos, and "tools"
focusing entirely on Max objects (i.e. no MSP or Jitter
objects)
and aimed primarily at true beginners who are just trying wrap their
heads around this open-ended program.
... blah, blah, blah, yeah ... I might read this someday, but I wanna get started RIGHT NOW!
Over the
years, I have watched many students dive into this deep ocean
of a program and start trying to swim to France before mastering the
basics. They usually end up thoroughly frustrated. Consequently, I
still think there is valid pedagogical
justification for focusing on learning the "ins and outs" of the Max
interface and the basic manipulation of numbers and messages before
getting seduced by all the cool things MSP and Jitter allow you to do.
It has never been my intention to create a thorough set of
tutorials covering all aspects of Max. Quite frankly, I would consider
myself unqualified even to attempt such an undertaking. The program, after
all, comes with plenty of tutorials. Beyond that there are now several
well-written books that provide a more-or-less thorough course of
instruction: the venerable Composing
interactive
music
:
techniques
and ideas using Max (Todd Winkler MIT Press, 1998), Electronic
Music And Sound Design - Theory And Practice With Max/Msp
(Alessandro Cipriani, Maurizio Giri, Contemponet 2010), Max/MSP/Jitter
for
Music:
A
Practical
Guide to Developing Interactive Music Systems (V. J. Manzo, Oxford
University Press, 2011).
I originally created and compiled
this set of demos years ago to fill what I perceived was a gap in
available resources that continues to this day. If you are familiar
with the Basic tutorials that come with Max and have tried to teach novice
students (or yourself) using them, you may well share my conclusion, that
they are too abstract. For example, when this package was first put
together, you had to wade through the Basics tutorials until you reach
Tutorial 19 before you actually get to hear anything as a result of all
your efforts with Max. Even then, you simply get a little note-making
routine dropped into place at the bottom of the patcher window, almost as
an afterthought, without any explanation of that part of the program. So
unless you’d gotten bored with the Basics tutorials and skipped ahead to
the MIDI Tutorials, you might not even understand the
note-making routine in that patch. The other aspect of the built-in
tutorials that seems to slow down and frustrate many students is the need
to switch back and forth between the wordy documentation file and the
bare-bones demo patches, with their reliance (over-reliance, IMO) on
printing text to the Max window using the [print ] object.
In contrast, most of my demo
patches are self-explanatory, with enough commentary so that even
a novice or beginning student can quickly get the patch to "do its
thing" ... and be able to explore the interactivity aspects immediately,
with out a steep learning curve or a lot
of set-up time. Another
common denominator for my collection of otherwise eclectic examples is
that nearly all of them make some kind of sound
immediately. Lastly, I think simply giving beginning students access to a
wide array of simple examples is very good way for students to get an idea
of what the program is capable of and quickly decide what aspects and
possibilities of the program will be most interesting for them to explore
with further reading and
study.
The origins of these different
patches themselves are varied: some are obviously purely pedagogical, some
come from my own earliest attempts at figuring out the program on my own,
quite a few have their conceptual origins in student projects that
required varying degrees of polish (and more informative comment boxes)
before they were suitable for inclusion in this collection. In the
couple of instances where contributions were more substantial, I have
given credit. Otherwise, I'm basically the one to blame for the rest of
this "mess." Speaking of "messes" ... my approach in these examples is to
include nearly all the programming details on the surface level. Aside
from the fact that these are mostly very simple patches, I think it's
pedagogically sound approach, at least when teaching beginners. I think
there are enough examples of sub-patchers included to teach the concept
successfully.
I offer these
comments as an explanation for why this collection so eccentric and why
I still continue to use it in my own teaching. I make no
guarantees regarding this collection of demos. They may be used and
distributed freely as long as credit is given.
Mark Phillips
phillipm@ohio.edu
http://www.ohio.edu/people/phillipm/
You may also want to check out other Max-related teaching files at the
above website.
Important
Note on MIDI input and output:
MIDI input and output ports are not specified in these demos. To
set them up appropriately for your studio environment, you may
need to double-click on the [noteout] [midiout] [pgmout] or
similar object then choose the port/device you want from the
pop-up list. |
Technical Stuff:
Most of this work was originally created using Max 3.6.2 and Mac
OS 8.6 before MSP objects were added to the program! It has been
updated and modified quite a bit over the years -- most recently
for Max 7. Most demos are set-up to use MIDI channel 1, though
some utilize additional channels adjacent to channel 1, and a few
use channel 10 for GM drum sounds. However most can easily be
re-assigned to any other channel. Except for those utilizing
channel 10, most demos will work fine with a generic piano
program, but some load different GM patches mainly for variety or
effect. (But on those demos, you can easily change to whatever
sound want.) It's best to have your keyboard set up with MIDI
local off, so all MIDI passes through Max before being acted upon
by the keyboard. |
Suggestions
for Getting Started Right NOW!
For true novices -- those just beginning to work with Max for the first
time, I seriously recommend that you .....
1) watch Cycling 74's short, but
excellent introductory
video:
< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSatrZW4XLI >
(Be forewarned... the demo does not show
how they produce that cool synth sound. If you just follow along
with their video instructions, you will hear a synth piano playing the
notes you are generating. Don't worry, you will soon know how to
play different instruments ... and soon enough how to make your very own
cool synth from scratch.
2) Work your way through all the
patches in the folder named 1_Max_Basics.
I promise it won't take long, they are
pretty simple and direct.
3) Peruse all the files in the
folder named 2_Useful_Tools
Don't worry too much about learning how all
of them work, just make a note of what patches are there and what they do.
These small, simple patches are designed for reuse. The goal is to keep
you from spending a lot of time reinventing the wheel ... or doing
something time consuming for which there is a quick solution.
4) Start exploring the folder named 3_Some_Simple_Examples.
Some are definitely better (more
interesting, better documented) than others. Feel free to jump around in
theses folders. Beyond grouping them into folders based on some of
the common object or concept, there is no strong pedagogically informed
organization to this collection of patches, other than that some of the
earliest patched I created are in some of the lowest numbered folders.