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Hi everyone...greetings from Guangzhou! I just wanted to say it was a pleasure to work with you all over the last week and I wish you all the best in your future studies. Hope to see you again in Shenyang or the UK! CHEARS! Graham
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Zhou Zhengqi (continued) Technical ability: The private lesson showed that you are definitely a fast learner, are are able to deal with basic coding in a language which you were not previously familiar with. You grasped concepts quickly and were able to adapt and extend basic examples. Also, the incisive questions you asked in the class showed that you were engaged and have a good ability for logical thinking.
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Zhou Zhengqi Overall: You show excellent potential to come into the 3 + 2 programme and to study abroad. However, you should spend some time to find your own speciality, which will involve narrowing down your interests to a focussed area of study. Language Ability: Your general listening and understanding was good, and your accent very clear. It would help to work more on your speaking and conversational abilities, in order to be able to develop a oral topic of conversation and respond more spontaneously to questions.
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Zhao Zhongye (continued) Language Ability: Your became more confident with using English as the workshop progressed from day to day. However you will still need to improve your general conversational level in order to be ready to integrate fully into an international academic environment. Readiness for 3 + 2: You are fully qualified for any situation in the 3 + 2 programme as long as your language and conversational ability improves to a good level. This will help you greatly in the UK, as the ability to have an open academic exchange of ideas is one of the main reasons for studying abroad.
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Zhao Zhongye Technical Ability: You have excellent technical abilities and are extremely self-motivated, as well as being a strong independent learner. You showed good ability with logical thinking, but be careful not to over think things (there were couple of examples in the class where you provided two solutions to a problem when one simpler one would have been enough). Also be sure stay focussed on the overall musical result, not just the technical aspects - this is one common trap when working with Max and programming in general.
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Yang Tianyang (continued) Readiness for 3 + 2: You have a very sociable learning style and are able to source and apply ideas from other members of the group. This openness will be a very useful skill when transitioning from a local Chinese mode of study to an international one.
Max/MSP Advanced Course: Feedback for Yang Tianyang Language Ability: You demonstrated a good level of communicational skill and can easily get across your ideas in English. One area for improvement is with your pronunciation and accent, as you sometimes had the right vocabulary but it was still hard to grasp the full meaning. This is something that you will be able to work on more in the UK. Technical Ability: You showed a solid progression throughout the course and picked up Max/MSP very quickly despite having no prior experience. Developing your technical and musical skill with Max and other interactive software applications will help you extend your compositional range and gradually develop your own style.
Workshop Info: The aim of the workshop will be to create a four channel drum machine. This will involve creating separate Max/MSP patches which can playback and synthesise drum sounds, as well as a master sequencer patch for creating and triggering drum patterns. The overall design will be similar to software drum machines (such as Propellorheads' Redrum) or classic hardware drum machines such as the Roland TR-808. The task as a whole will provide a solid grounding in both Max (control messages) and MSP (digital signal processing). The core principles of sound playback, synthesis and sequencing will be introduced, alongside aspects of sound mixing and user interface design. These techniques are the foundations of almost any Max/MSP patch.
Each session will consist of four elements, as follows: A Theory - lecture with handouts and interactive examples from the book "Electronic Music and Sound Design" B Introduction to the Max/MSP Environment - demonstrations and activities which will introduce you to how to use the Max/MSP application C Example Patches - a look at a range of existing patches to understand how they work D Patching Activities - creating your own Max/MSP patches and reusing them in more complex projects Time will be available in the final session and outside of class time to work on projects with advanced students.
Session 1: Create a Simple Sample Sequencer AM 1.1 understand the basics of patching in Max 1.2 build and encapsulate a simple sample playback patch 1.3 control the sampler using envelopes PM 1.4 build a simple sequencer patch 1.5 control the sampler using the sequencer 1.6 create a user interface for the sampler/sequencer (in presentation mode)
Session 2: Drum Sound Synthesis and Sample Accurate Sequencing AM: 2.1 understand the pros and cons of sampling and synthesis 2.2 understand the principles of additive and subtractive synthesis 2.3 synthesise a snare drum using additive and subtractive synthesis methods 2.4 synthesise a bass drum using additive and subtractive synthesis methods 2.5 use envelopes to alter the pitch and timbre of sounds over time PM: 2.6 build a sample accurate sequencer to trigger sounds 2.7 add a mixer section to the patch to combine and pan sounds
Session 3: Wave Table Synthesis and Multi-Channel Sequencing AM: 3.1 understand the principles of wavetable synthesis 3.2 synthesise a cymbal sound using wavetable synthesis PM: 3.3 build a four channel drum sequencer with duration, envelope, panning and gain control. The finished sequencer should: - show the current playback position - allow forwards or backwards playback - allow tempo to be specified in beats per minute (bpm) - allow notes to be placed freely or snap to a time grid (quantisation) - allow an amplitude envelope to be applied to each type of drum sound - allow variation of a single parameter for each drum hit (i.e. pitch of bass drum) - allow patterns to be recalled and saved
Session 4: Open Session The final session will be an open one, depending on the progress of the previous sessions. Topics may include: - Design Your Own Max Patch (a chance to realise a simple Max patch of your own design) - Review of Techniques (a chance to go over aspects you would like to practice on) - Additional Topics (i.e. use of hardware controllers)
* Online content Below are a selection of useful links to get started. More content to follow soon. Download Max/MSP Trial Here: http://cycling74.com/downloads/ Cycling '74 Max/MSP 5 Documentation and Tutorials: http://cycling74.com/docs/max5/vignettes/intro/docintro.html Cycling '74 Max/MSP Projects Page http://cycling74.com/category/projects/ Cycling '74 Max/MSP Message Forum http://cycling74.com/forums/ Third-party Max Objects - Maxobjects.com http://www.maxobjects.com/ Third-party Max Objects - Jamoma http://jamoma.org/ Third-party Max Objects - The Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/downloads http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/library/max_msp_jitter_depot
Session 5 - Encapsulating and extending patches Date: Sunday 12th September 2010 Subjects Covered: - Creating a user interface using presentation mode - Storing patch settings as presets - Encapsulating and reusing parts of your patch - Readable patching: tidying, commenting and colour coding your work - Where next? Tutorials, forum and accessing third-party externals. Creative Tasks: - Create a presentable version of your patch to share with others Objects Covered: - slider / kslider / rslider, dial, umenu, preset, send / receive, send~ / receive~
Session 4: Building a Gesture Controlled Sampler Date: Saturday 11th September 2010 Introductory Presentation: - Multibuffer: A Max/MSP Instrument in Ableton Live Subjects Covered: - Getting audio in to Max 2: Soundfiles - Loading soundfiles using buffer~ - An in depth look at the groove~ object - Gestural control of sampler parameters Creative Task: - Create a simple sampler patch and control it using the keyboard and trackpad Max/MSP Objects Covered: - groove~, buffer~, record~, waveform~
Session 3: Basics of Max Signal Processing (MSP) Date: Friday 10th September 2010 Introductory Presentation: - Signal Processing in Max Subjects Covered: - Max vs MSP: key differences (2) - Taking apart the synthesis patch from Sessions 1 and 2 - Getting audio in to Max 1: Live input - Adjusting DSP settings - Combining signals and controlling gain - Getting in and out of the signal domain - Using built-in MSP DSP objects (delay, filtering, distortion etc) Creative Task: - Build a controllable effects chain which combines distortion, compression, filtering and delay Max/MSP Objects Covered: - ezdac~ / ezadc~, sig~, snapshot~, meter~, gain~, *~, +~, degrade~, tapin~, tapout~, omx.peaklim~, biquad~
Session 2: Native Input Capabilities of the Laptop Date: Thursday 9th September 2010 Introductory Presentation: - Examples of gestural control using the laptop Key Subjects Covered: - Keyboard input using "key" and "keyup" object - Trackpad input using "mousestate" object - Mapping gesture data to sound generation parameters Creative Task: - Use the mousestate and key/keyup objects to control parameters of a synthesis patch Max/MSP Objects Covered: - mousestate, key / keyup, scale / zmap, pictslider
Session 1: Getting Started with Max Date: Wednesday 8th September 2010 Introductory Presentation: - Context and Usage of Max/MSP Key Subjects: - Max Basics: Objects, message boxes, patch cords - Data Types: Bangs, Floats, Integers, Symbols and Lists - Graphical patching and the Importance of Message Order - Using Help Patches and Reference Materials - Max vs MSP: key differences (1) Creative Task: - Controlling a sampler module using basic max messages Max/MSP Objects Covered: - object box, button, int / float, comment, trigger, select, route, gate, toggler, metro, +, -, *, /
