The projects and tasks are designed to help you through the various courses and materials that you'll have to deal with, and also to provide an active and practical element to what could otherwise become a rather dry and technical exercise. Tasks are small exercises - you may be asked to complete one or two per week. Projects are larger and carry a higher percentage of the mark. We will undertake two, three, four or more projects and tasks. The final project is usually an individual choice project, and will be worth significantly more than the others in terms of percentages in your portfolio. We will usually try to set aside a time to perform the projects in a public setting.
Currently Available Tasks
MaxMSP Tasks
Getting-Help.php Knowing how to get help is one of the most crucial aspects of learning how to use any software, and particularly complex environments such as Max/MSP.
Speech.php A look at a number of speech based synthesisers and editors.
Max-Alg01.php Investigate algorithms and algorithmic methods in MaxMSP.
MBrola.php MBrola is a public-domain voice synthesiser. A version of the MBrola engine has been rendered for use in Max/MSP.
Granularisation.php A task involving the granularisation and reformation of soundfiles and buffers.
Munger.php Munger~ is a Max/MSP external that granularises an input according to certain parameters. It's especially interesting to us as the external has been ported to SuperCollider and we'll spend some time comparing the two implementations and their effectiveness.
Fiddle-Bonk-Gate.php Using the parameters of one sound (pitch, amplitude or envelope, etc.) to control those of another.
Max-Synth01.php Investigate some of the ways of using synthesis methods in Max.
Breakbeat-Cutting.php This task involves understanding cutting and reforming soundfiles.
External-Objects.php External objects are a fundamental part of Max/MSP. They are routines that users and developers have created to either do something new, to do something that is available in other software but not in Max, or to do something simple and that one could do otherwise in Max, but one can do it more easily and/or more quickly with a custom object.
Making-Mistakes.php While it may sometimes appear that you are entirely at the mercy of luck as to whether something works or not in Max, there are things that you can do to help diagnose why things aren't working.
Voice.php A look at a number of speech based synthesisers and editors.
Pick-Your-Own.php Choose one of the following tasks to undertake. Be careful as you may well want to use this task as the basis for your Max/MSP Project...
Toplap.php Live coding is the activity of writing (parts of) a program while it runs. It thus deeply connects algorithmic causality with the perceived outcome and by deconstructing the idea of the temporal dichotomy of tool and product it allows code to be brought into play as an artistic process. The nature of such running generative algorithms is that they are modified in real-time; as fast as possible compilation and execution assists the immediacy of application of this control. Whilst one might alter the data set, it is the modification of the instructions and control flow of processes themselves that contributes the most exciting action of the medium.
External-Classes.php Just as Max/MSP uses 'external objects' or 'externals' to extend its functionality (and as other types of software use 'plug-ins'), Supercollider can be (and has been) extended by the development of external 'classes'.
Basic-GUI.php Using a particular example from Supercollider, develop a basic GUI which allows control of at least one simple function through a slider.