MAX/MSP 暑期工作坊（初学者）
Max/MSP Summer Workshop (Beginners)

最近参加了张睿博老师筹备的max课程，我学到了很多东西，不像以前用商业软件做音乐，用商业化音色做音乐有利有弊，当然有便捷的条件，但是因为音色花样繁多，选择音色时候也会需要很多时间。但是了解max写音乐的方法之后，了解到这样的编程式软件可以有很多想法和手段曲写音乐，根据自己想要的音乐形式和效果用不同的程序和公式编写出来，既锻炼了我的逻辑思维又加强了分析能力。开始我们只是针对程序中必须的专用名词和这些名词在程序中的作用以及连接方法，渐渐的汇集到所有名词后跟随graham的课件用所学到的理论去改程序，通过改变各部分参数和连接方式，我得到了不同的音色效果，感觉很欣慰，同时在短短的5天课程中也使对max这种互动式音乐产生了很大的兴趣。唯一的遗憾就是课程中都是在根据原有的程序改参数，却没有完全独立编写一个属于自己想做互动的程序。课程虽然结束了，但我还会继续努力写程序的。

这次的MAX/MSP工作坊是在9月初开始的，我很兴奋，因为我从来没有系统的学习过MAX，只是私底下看看软件自带的教程。虽然已经有了一个初步的了解，但具体内容还不是很清楚。这次的工作坊只有5天，我觉得算是速成吧。但好在就是MAX部分和MSP部分并不是分隔开来讲的。记得我自己看教程的时候，先看的MAX部分，看了很多章节之后还是没听见任何声音，那时候对这个软件已经失去兴趣了。所以我觉得这次的教学在这点安排的是非常好的。每天的上午我们会学一些新的物件和怎么使用，下午就相对自由一些，把自己的想法付诸实践编写成PATCH，遇到什么困难，就请教老师。但，这次的工作坊也有很多需要改进的地方，5天的课程实在太短了，刚刚对MAX有一些感觉，进入了一些状态时就结束课程了，觉得很遗憾。

Mungo said i have to write some review or feeling about the workshop. Well... feel pretty good to back to school after so many years of fighting with the sick education system...

Anyway, our teacher, Graham Booth, is a super nice person. He has a very solid knowledge about Max/MSP and massive patience. By the way, he doesn't use the stupid Powerpoint which always have neither power nor point. Lectures with Prezi make me feel much better.

Max/MSP is some kind of eyes-opener for us newbies who are even younger than this software. I remember Miller Puckette said that "...max is for people who have hit the limits of the usual sequencer..." For us who haven't hit the limits, it help us to realize the limit, changing our way of thinking, like music doesn't have to be a time-based fixed media. Ableton Live open the door of changing the thinking pattern for us, but Max/MSP goes further (and always goes too far...). Here comes the interesting thing, although Max came out much earlier than Live, we younger people know Live much earlier than Max...

Despite I learn a lot from the workshop and like it, there are still somethings I am dissatisfied. I know is good to have a solid basis, but is confusing to talk about different message type when we don't even have a clear idea of what the hell is Max. The second thing is that Graham was too nice. He answer our questions by completely do it for us. I really appreciated that, but I don't really like that. I prefer teacher just show us the way, and let us explore by ourself. By the way, don't mention the time! Good time are always too short.

Talking about the word "interactive". As a big fanboy of sci-fi everything who don't really believe in strong AI theory. There is no way to let me believe any INTERACT between human and computer. What we do with computer is exactly REACT. Because machine can only do things we programmed them to do. It get more and more fancy, but the essential stay still. I don't think anyone can do "mind-coding" since we don't even know how us human got intelligence. So how can machine interact with us? Oh, right, sometimes it does interactive with me. When I press a button and got noting, this machine really make me annoying.

"Max/MSP Summer Workshop(Beginners): The Different Attitudes among Students Towards the Interactive Music in China".

“MAX/MSP 暑期工作坊（初学者）：国内学生对于交互式音乐的不同态度”。

Max/MSP has been widely used by composers, performers, software designers, researchers and artists for creating innovative recordings, performances and installations. During its 20-year history in China, it has been a most popular computer music application for interactive pieces and welcomed by a lot of Chinese academic and non-academic musicians. However, this trend is only available in the cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu or Wuhan. For Shenyang, a city located in North-East of China, it is a brand-new application for computer music comparing to those already well-known commercial software, such as ProTools, Logic and Cubase.

The workshop, Max/MSP Summer Workshop (beginners), was held in September 2010. Only four students participated from beginning to end: one Max/MSP enthusiasm who is very brave to say "NO" to Chinese official college education; two college students who are studying in Shenyang Conservatory of Music (one male and one female); one freelance musician who is making commercial music. Each of them had a different attitude to this workshop that is related to their performance closely during these 5 days from 8th to 12th of September.

In this paper, I will draw from the experience of these four people in this workshop to some new ideas for the next workshop. This experience would be helpful for the development of interactive music in the second-tier cities, except Beijing and Shanghai etc.

* 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, +, -, *, /

讲座10:00-13:00（第一天免费开放）
工作坊14:00-17:00

Lecture 10:00-13:00 (first day open for free)
Workshop 14:00-17:00

有兴趣的话，发电邮到CHEARS（请见主页上的电邮地址）。

If you are interested in this course, send Email to CHEARS (find email address on the home page, please)!

费用：1000元（以参加人数而定）。

Price: 1000RMB (depends on how many people in the class).

The idea comes from Musiques et recherches. It has the same kind of summer course under the same title!

This course will be taught in English and Chinese, but we will try to use English as much as possible. That will be very important to those beginners whose first language are not English, especially for Chinese students!

Here is the original text from Musiques et recherches, Chinese introduction is translated by Ren Xiu （任秀）.

> 什么是Max/MSP？

MAX/MSP是一个实时、交互的图形编程环境，应用于音乐、音频、媒体和互动装置领域。它不仅仅是一个软件，用户还可以通过它创建个性化工具，以此来完成信号处理、合成和管理数据的功能。它灵活多变且功能强大，有直观的图形界面和广泛的开发文档，以及在线帮助和教程例子，受到广大作曲家的喜爱和应用。

> What is Max/MSP?

Max/MSP is a real-time, interactive, graphic programing environment for music, audio, media, and interactive installations. Much more than a piece of software, Max provides users with the resources to build their own tools for signal processing, synthesis and data management. It is extremely versatile and powerful, and yet remains accessible - useable by artists and musicians - because of the intuitive graphic interface as well as the extensively-developed documentation, online help, tutorials and examples.

> 谁能够从中受益？

MAX/MSP对想超越商业音乐软件（编辑器、音序器、合成器和插件）的用户有特别帮助。它可以在录音棚中完成合成、采样和数据处理，也可以为实时交互式计算机音乐会作品编写程序。除了音乐上的应用，在多媒体设计、互动装置、戏剧和舞蹈方面，MAX更是一件理想工具。一直以来，MAX通过来自世界各地广大用户不断的分享知识和创新，得到持续发展。

> Who can benefit from it?

Max/MSP is especially useful for those who want to go beyond what is offered by dominant commercial music software (editors, sequencers, synthesizers, plug-ins). It can be used to construct synthesis, sampling and processing instruments for studio use, as well as programs that run during concerts of real-time interactive computer music. In addition to its musical applications, Max is an ideal tool for multimedia projects, interactive installations, dance and theater. Max is sustained by a broad community of users from all over the world who are are continually sharing their knowledge and creating new extensions.

> 课程内容是什么？

本课程会向初学者提供对MAX/MSP全方位的了解、实际应用和数字信号处理的基本概念。我们将包含以下课题： MAX/MSP语言的结构、句法和逻辑； 声音的录制、变形和回放；现场音频输入的处理；合成音色；调制；采样；延迟类效果（回声，相位，镶边，karplus strong）；滤波器，移调，频率转换，失真；储存召回参数；管理复合效果；姿态捕捉与算法控制等。先决条件：基本的电脑技能是必不可少的，最好是有使用音频软／硬件作曲的经验。当然，动力、耐心、决心和幽默感是最重重要的。

> What is the course's contents?

This course offers beginners a solid basis for a global understanding of Max/MSP and its practical use, as well as many fundamental concepts of digital signal processing. We will cover such topics as: the language Max/MSP - structure, syntax and logic; recording, transformation and playback of soundfiles; processing live audio input; sound synthesis; modulation; sampling; delay line effects (echo, phasing, flanging, Karplus Strong); filtering, transposition, frequency shifting, distortion; storing and recalling parameters; managing multiple effects; gestural and algorithmic controls, etc. Prerequisites: basic computer skills are essential. It is best to have some experience making music with audio software and/or hardware. However, the most important prerequisites are: motivation, patience, determination, and a sense of humor...