Max/MSP Tutorials

Mid-Semester Assignment

• This assignment is worth 20% of the overall mark
• Make sure you've covered as many of the Max and MSP Tutorials (located in 'Tutorial Documents' on CMS0 and available from Cycling74) as possible;
• From these tutorials pick three of four objects or patches that interest you - ideally they should cover a variey of approaches - MIDI, audio manipulation, filtering, synthesis, different methods of performance manipulation (e.g. using the mouse), etc.;
• From this collection, form an overall 'performance patch';
• Ensure that you keep documentation of each element. The documentation may be included in the patch itself, or on your website alongside your patch's download (or, of course, both);
• Ensure that you include information about the patch's format - are there 'sub-patches' included? Are the patches in text or binary format and for which platform. You may include as many formats as possible, but you must include a format that is performable on the Macs in the CMS.

The Patch

You are to invent a patch that does something concrete and creative. Ideally, this will involve some sort of transformation or compositional effect or process. Your patch may be based on one or more soundfiles, an audio input or MIDI. The interface should be clearly labelled and documented, although these elements should not prevent clear reading/performing of the patch itself. You may wish to hide elements, but don't, in doing so, obscure workings of the patch required to check whether it is fully operating.

You may wish to use this exercise as a prototype for your final submission (week 12).

Some Ideas

• Invent a patch for triggering various sound files in accordance with various criteria;
• Invent a patch investigating a few basic granularisation effects;
• Invent a patch generating sequences of frequencies for [cycle~] (for example, or a more complex sound producing object), possibly utilising mathematical formulae.
• Invent a patch generating algorithmic sequences using MIDI

Submission

Initial submission will be by the Friday of week 8 (sem 2, 2005-6).

You must inform the relevant member of staff of your website address.

You will provide a link on your web-page/site to the relevant downloadable document(s). These will be in the form of a MaxMSP patch, available in both binary and text form. The options must be clearly labelled. Also, on your site, you'll provide details of what the patch does, what components it uses, and what resources the user requires to operate the software.

Include a screen shot if you can. (On a Macintosh, you can do this by pressing shift-command-3, opening the resulting 'picture' file (it'll be on the desktop), saving in a web-friendly format, such as JPEG and uploading this to your website. The code to display an image is:

 <IMG SRC="the_URL_of_your_image.jpg" ALT="screenshot of my patch" WIDTH="100" HEIGHT="100">

).

I'll attempt to check the documents out and let you know if there's a problem. If there is a problem you may have to consider submitting on disc, etc.

You will be permitted to update your patch/page and resubmit the assignment in week 12 after which all assignments will be marked, finally. Any changes you make following initial submission must be fully documented: otherwise it will be assumed that you haven't made any.