MaxMSP-based Teaching and Learning Resources

created by Mark Phillips



Everything here is freely available to download and use as you see fit.









Electro-Acoustic Music Primer



This software is designed to help teach some basic audio principles and common synthesis techniques to beginning students. There is also a ProjectSynthPack module with a number of more elaborate demonstration synths and audio file manglers which beginning students can use as a resource for their first electronic music mini-projects.



Major Update!

(March 2013)

-- virtually every patcher has been revised and upgraded. This is the first major update I've done on this material in six or seven years. I completely remade *all* of the components.

Since then there have been minor tweaks and improvements

Increased the size of fonts and objects so the display is more readable and more suitable for especially video projection.



Added more standardization to the user interface

Added several new features (a brand new, more flexible input section for the Deluxe Panner, for example)

Added oscilloscopes and spectroscopes to several more modules

Refined the programming and got rid of a lot of "questionable" patching routines.

Eliminated ALL hidden objects and patch cords (except for the menu pages). This is probably the biggest and most significant change. It will permit anyone using only the stand-alone application (or the free Max Runtime application) to see ALL of the programming used to create the patch.



Download Instructions

:



Download and install either the full Max program from Cycling 74 and use either of the following links.



E-A_MusicPrimerFolder.zip — This link downloads a folder with all the individual modules of the Primer as separate files. Each module can be run individually, or you can open the file named E-A_MusicPrimer.maxpat to run the programming in a manner similar to running the stand-alone Mac application. It will work fine in Max 6 or Max 7.

Note: Anyone with Max (6 or 7) installed on their computer (Mac or PC) can also use this last link above to look "under the hood" and all the details about how the patches work. However, with this new version, there won't be much to learn that you cannot learn by just looking at the application or the collective. Either way, beginners can start learning how to program and create their own Max patches while learning about basic principle of electro-acoustic music.







Ma(r)xTutorials

Ma(r)xTutorials is 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. It is intended to supplement the tutorials that come with the program.



Since the major revision in 2013, there have been many minor tweaks and improvements

In the process of updating it, I substantially revised and/or expanded nearly every patch and added a lot more to the Max Basics folder and added several more Useful Tools. It will be more pedagogically useful than ever for someone just starting to learn Max.





Download link:



This link downloads a small "zipped" folder of demos for beginning max programmers ... requires user to also download Ma(r)xTutorials_Folder.zip (ca. 500k)This link downloads a small "zipped" folder of demos for beginning max programmers ... requires user to also download

install either the full Max program or the free runtime version of the program from Cycling 74



