Cycling '74: 20Concepts 00-04

In the spirit of the 20Objects lessons that I mentioned in the last post, Cycling '74 also created (well, partially, in any case) a second series of tutorials called "20Concepts." Perhaps the most important difference, aside from the fact that they're not actually finished, is that they start not with the simplest object in the Max/MSP/Jitter universe – the button – but, instead, they start with one of the most complex – the Vizzie modules for video manipulations. Actually, I think it makes great sense, as it's much more engaging to start with the big pictures. And, besides, the Vizzie modules are fun!

Here's the complete list of (intended) tutorials in the 20Concepts curriculum:

• 20Concepts Curriculum Overview (Done)
• 01: Vizzie Part 1 (Done)
• 02: Vizzie Part 2 (Done)
• 03: Messages Part 1 (Done)
• 04: Messages Part 2 (Nonexistent)
• 05: Time
• 06: MIDI
• 07: More About Numbers
• 08: Networks
• 09: Subpatchers
• 10: Presets and The Pattr Object
• 11: Audio Generation
• 12: Audio Filtering
• 13: Audio Levels
• 14: Audio FX
• 15: Jitter Input
• 16: Jitter FX
• 17: Jitter Compositing
• 18: OpenGL Part 1
• 19: OpenGL Part 2
• 20: Max Output

As with the 20Objects tutorials, these look like they might be short but, when you actually do all of the exercises, they are veeeery time-consuming. So far, I've only gotten through the first three, but they have been very, very helpful so far. I look forward to the rest!

Here are video walkthroughs of the lessons that I've done so far.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KjZM6Krb90]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jcdG4tygS4]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJMs5IZRp70]

Completed:

• Cycling '74 20Concepts, Lesson 00, 20Concepts Curriculum Overview; Lesson 01: Vizzie Part 1; Lesson 02: Vizzie Part 2, and Lesson 03: Messages Part 1 (13 exercises)
• Lesson 04: Messages Part 2 is empty on the web page
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY

Cycling '74: Vizzie Quickstart Tutorials

Well, I've finished VJ Manzo's book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music but, in the true academic fashion, it served mostly to let me know how much I don't know. (And that's a compliment, VJ!) And so I've decided to start working on the tutorials that Cycling '74, the creators of  Max/MSP/Jitter, have on their own website. I'm a linear kind of guy and I like to start at the very beginning, so I took at look at their "Quickstart" page on the fabulous Vizzie objects. Here's my first take at what they offer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgYafXpvRls]

Completed:

• Cycling '74: Vizzie Quickstart Tutorials (1 exercise)
• Jitter patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY

MMJ4M 10: Working with Time

Chapter 10 "Working with Time" of VJ Manzo's book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music is a busy one and a lot of fun. The most important parts for me were that we learned how to create user-controlled loops (of MIDI files, not audio) and how to create a simple step sequencer. Now I realize that it's probably much easier to do both of these in Ableton Live (which my grant at  Utah Valley University got for me) and other, more specialized programs, but it gets to the heart of the things I want to do with Max/MSP/Jitter. (Well, some of the things, in any case.) But it gets much closer to the music making part that I'm interested in.

By the way, it occurs to me that it would be great if the fine people at Cycling '74 (you know, the people who gave us Max/MSP/Jitter) could take the example of their Vizzie modules, which are preassembled, easy to use subpatches for working with video, and did a similar things for MIDI and/or audio files. I'm just sayin'....

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 10: Working with Time (18 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl