Creating Max/MSP gen~ And More

US Perfect Circuit interview Graham Wakefield 07/03/24

Max/MSP is an incredibly popular platform for developing audio ideas and plugins - often used as a prototyping environment for the biggest software houses. The gen~ object is an extension of the Max patching environment that converts what you build visually into efficient compiled code, created by Graham Wakefield. Graham is interviewed here for Perfect Circuit, and suffice to say if you're a Max programmer you'll have a field day with it.

Here's a quick excerpt:

Everyone is different, but here's one take: You can solve some problems by getting a DAW and a few plugins, but often they just don't work quite how you want them to, and once you hit that wall there's not much you can do – each piece of software is pretty much a black box. It can solve a problem quickly, but doesn't translate well to other problems. Max might look like it has a steeper learning curve than getting a few DAWs and plugins, but what you learn is multiplicative (if you learn N things you can apply them in NxN ways).

Before long it becomes faster to solve things by patching, rather than looking for a new piece of software. And that knowledge and understanding stays with you – Max patches written 20 years ago still work (unless they depended on unmaintained 3rd party code). Not many 20 year old VSTs still work! And more importantly, the ideas translate to other environments too.

Find out more about gen~ https://docs.cycling74.com/max8/vignettes/gen_topic

Read the full article here: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/signal/graham-wakefield-generating-sound-organizing-time-interview

About the author [midierror]: midierror makes nifty Max For Live devices, innovative music hardware, award winning sample packs and hosts a podcast speaking to people in the music world.