MMJ4M 05: Interactive Ear Training

Chapter 05 of VJ Manzo's book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music is about constructing an application for ear training with musical intervals. I have separate screenshots for each of the twelve steps in this exercise but I've condensed them into a single video below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1UhAQ8N7GQ]

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 05: Interactive Ear Training (12 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl

MMJ4M 04: Scales and Chords

After a long, long time, I'm back and working on Max/MSP/Jitter. (I've got to get these incompletes finished!) I started chapter 4 of VJ Manzo's excellent book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music over a year ago and just finished it today. What's funny  is how much my interests have changed since then – I'm much more interested in Max for music now than in using it just as a stepping stone to Jitter and data visualization. My goal is also to start using Max/MSP to work with my saxophone, as well as Ableton Live. Many, many good things.

Anyhow, that's Chapter 04: Scales and Chords for now. Screenshots are above, YouTube links are below.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiJQpqMbwxo]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2hA5SOj2Mg]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_pkhU1IM4]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSzI_lq5ENQ]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VQkLqpBva8]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMM8jD1dpiI]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU9niZUQCF4]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g00aNGQaB4]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni6dpRGvj6w]

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 04: Scales and Chords (21 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl

MMJ4M 03: Math and Music

I'm going cross-eyed now that I've finally finished working through the fourteen thousand exercises in Chapter 03 of VJ Manzo's book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music. (Well, it felt like fourteen thousand. And, as VJ may drop in on this post, I'd like to emphasize that it's an excellent book and very thorough. I think I just tried to do too many at one go.) Anyhow, after an extended break to work on other pressing matters (like an academic job application), it's nice to be back into things. I can tell that Max has many, many more things in store for me. That being said, here's my progress report in pictures and video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84zwxpPhof0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bubD9lxOi2A]

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

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjQKdq77Xp0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1tqT4U0CSQ]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQNd7VGlk20]

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

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhXmEyf9I00]

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

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQrRux4F-hw]

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 3: Math and Music (15 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl

Max Miscellanea #1

Just a couple of silly things that I tried after watching some videos by the creators of Max, Cycling '74. These were posted on YouTube under their "Did You Know" series, although I'm linking them in to my YouTube account as I watch each one. The first is a little bon bon for us nice and orderly types and the second is frivolous, although it does have some more useful application, which may come up later.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt8wNbY4ulg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od6LSUtyOcc]

MMJ4M 02: Generating Music

"Random Atonal Trash," or RAT, is the term that VJ Manzo uses for the Max patches in Chapter 2 of his book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music. What that means is that tones are generated using random numbers. There are several variations on the patch, including a few with sliders for duration and tone. The next few patches seem to require an actual keyboard, which I don't have, so we'll see what happens.

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

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

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT2QkhK-xb4]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooeO186zhXY]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mROX-Yb3nBA]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKFE_oPer9o]

And, happily, I just came across another blog that is working through VJ Manzo's Max book: mikecrane.wordpress.com. I'll link his stuff as often as I can.

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 2: Generating Music (first part) (6 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl

Related articles

• Learning MAX/MSP (mikecrain.wordpress.com)
• OpenSoundControl (virtualacoustics.wordpress.com)
• Software Max/MSP/Jitter (gearslutz.com)

MMJ4M 01: Introduction to Programming

In my previous post I reported on my independent study project with Processing. Now I'll report on a second project, this one using the visual programming environment Max/MSP by Cycling '74. (This project is being supervised by Music Professor Miguel Chuaqui, who, according to the map on the Cycling '74 site, is the only person in the state of Utah who teaches Max/MSP.)

Anyhow, I'm using a lovely book entitled Max/MSP/Jitter for Music by VJ Manzo, who looks much more like a wild man rocker than someone who would write clean, crisp prose about programming (good for you!). I started reading this book back in November. I posted on it previously but now I'm ready to put up pictures of all of my patches, as the programs are called. So, the gallery at the top of this post includes the five patches from Chapter 1 and the videos below show them in action.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBibJQ9P-O8]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmQ9KvW3XY0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhwFuJ9rA_M]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf06H2okJpM]

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

(I've also come across a blog with a total of nine entries from 2009 called "Learning Max/MSP: Using Max/MSP for a Generative Music Burning Man Project." Excellent!)

Completed:

• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 0: Preface (0 exercises)
• Max/MSP/Jitter for Music, Ch. 1: Introduction to Programming (5 exercises)
• Patches can be downloaded from http://db.tt/GBYLb0vY (Dead Link)
• UPDATED LINK: Patches can now be downloaded from http://j.mp/1iy19Xl

Max Workshop @ Berkeley

In the realm of "you can always dream," I learned that the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at Berkeley has summer workshops on Max/MSP/Jitter (see the 2011 announcement right here). It all looks very cool and I'd love to go. A few glitches, though: (1) two weeks is an awfully long time to be gone from home; and (2) even though July of 2012 (when I assume they will do it again) is after my sabbatical is done and I'm theoretically back on the subsidized travel clock, I'm not sure my ever-loving school (UVU) would want to give me more money to go off and learn things before I even get back in the classroom. So, maybe 2013, maybe never....

In the meantime, cast your eyes upon CNMAT's excellent "Compact Spherical Loudspeaker Array," which consists of 120 loudspeakers that are all of 1 inch each. The idea is that it can give directional sound like with acoustic instruments (and much more for the adventurous out there). It would also make an excellent replacement for the star on top of our Christmas tree.

Max & Me

I just made my very first patch in Max (v. 6), otherwise known as Max/MSP/Jitter, which is brought to us by the fine people at Cycling ’74. I feel like a proud papa! (If you click on the circles — in Max, that is — they’ll light up in order of connection.) I’m just following along in V. J. Manzo’s book Max/MSP/Jitter for Music: A Practical Guide to Developing Interactive Music Systems for Education and More (where I’m part of the “and More” crowd). Here’s the book:

This is significant because I’m going to be taking a self-organized course next semester at the University of Utah in an attempt to learn how to (eventually) do data visualization with Max. Should be fun… and it’s very nice to be off and rolling!