Max/MSP/Jitter Intensive Workshop
Summer 2004

Coures Description

This class is a three week intensive workshop in the audio (and video) authoring program Max/MSP/Jitter.
Although geared primarily towards people working in sound it covers topics and methods applicable to anyone working in live performance, gallery installation, studio recording, etc.
Students are not required to have any previous experience with, or knowledge of, the software as the course is paced in such a way as to take students from beginning to intermediate concepts in a short period of time.
Course materials are presented in a "theory and practice" format. "Theory" is morning lectures based on the presentation of various Max 'patches', each illustrating concepts that students will use in the creation of their own custom applications, with each patch and it's component parts explained in detail. "Practice" is afternoon lab time where students will explore, modify, and build upon the materials presented in the lectures. The instructor will be on hand every afternoon for one-on-one assistance.

• The first week will start with a general introduction to the Max evironment and proceed into basic concepts of working with audio.
• The second week will introduce more advanced audio concepts and then move on to a variety of related topics such as graphics, MIDI, compiling patches, etc. Time permitting we will also look at granular synthesis techniques and building plug-ins. The second week will conclude with basic video processing using Jitter.
• The last week of class will be full day labs to allow students to work on their final project.

Note: Monday July 5th (the first day of the third week) is Independence Day observed. Class will NOT meet this day.

Projects

Students will, in the space of three weeks, work towards the creation of a final project. This project can take one of two forms: A) the class will work collectively on the creation of final application, which we will compile into a finished piece of software, suitable for distribution. B) Each student will work on an individual project of their choosing.
We will discuss this in more detail on the first day of class.

Materials

This course is taught in a computer classroom (MI 917) with each student at their own machine running Max/MSP. As we will be dealing primarily with sound everyone is required to bring their own headphones (with a mini stereo plug) to every class.
You should also consider bringing a 100Mb Zip™ disk (for backup) and a notebook.
If you have any sound resources (recordings) and/or video clips you are interested in working with you should bring these as well (on CD, disk, or across the network).

Lectures for this course are based on example Max patches. These patches are not only for demonstration but are also the files you will be working with to learn Max. In order to give you easy access to them they are stored on the school's server, here is how to access them:

• In the Finder (desktop) under the Go menu select Connect to Server...
• A window will open, click the Browse button
• You will see a list of availble zones, click World
• You will be presented with a list of all the availbe servers, choose ATS File Server X
• A window will open asking you to login in as a Registered User, for User type student, for the Password type waffle
• When you are asked to Select the Volumes you wish to mount hightlight Files for Courses and click OK
• An icon with a globe, marked Files for Courses should appear on your desktop
• Double click on this icon, choose the folder Max/MSP Summer 04
• All the example files are in the folder Examples

Attendance

Per SAIC policy any students who has three or more unexcused absences will not receive credit for the course.
Absences will be counted in both full and half days, so any student missing either the morning lecture or skipping the afternoon workshop will be counted half-absent, half-absences obviously adding up to full absences.
Should you have a personal conflict that requires you to miss a class or part of a class you are strongly encouraged to be absent from the afternoon labs vs. the morning lectures, AND you will need to talk to the me ahead of time to be excused.
My office phone is 312 345 3573 or you can email me at rdrink@artic.edu

Final Presentation

Students will present their final project on the last day of class (Friday July 9th) in a critique format in room 522 of the Michigan Building. We will be looking at your work not only from an aesthetic standpoint, but also examine the technical details as well as suggesting further avenues of exploration.
Given the short duration of the class there is no expectation that your project be a fully realized piece, works in progress are fine, but you will be expected to present what ever you have created to date.

Resources

Links to a variety of things Max/MSP/Jitter

• Cycling 74 - The company that brings us Max (a.k.a. the mothership)
• Max V. Mathews - The namesake of Max
• Miller Puckett - The father of Max
• PeRColate - a suite of interesting objects from Columbia University
• CNMAT - The Center for New Music and Technology at Berkeley, lots of Max toys
• CAMU - The Chicago Area Max/MSP Users group (brought to you by splinter group and Robb Drinkwater)
• more to come...

Max/MSP Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts

The best place to look for tips is the Tips patch in the Extras menu in Max.
Here a few of the main ones

• Other than the Lock/Unlock bubble in the upper right corner of the window you can also command+click (that's "hold down the Apple button while clicking") in any white space of the patcher, or use the keyboard shortcut command+e
• To select multiple objects click and drag over them
• To select multiple objects, plus patch cords option+click and drag over them or, to select patch cords option+click and drag over them
• To turn diagonal patch cords to segmented patch cords select them and use command+y