Max/MSP 4.5 now available!

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:10 pm

And it looks very interesting:

http://www.cycling74.com

New DSP functions
Mastering quality single and multi-band dynamics objects using OctiMax technology for compression, expansion, limiting, and noise gating. Also comes with a complete dynamics tutorial to help the novice learn more about the subtle details of dynamics processing.
Rewire slave support. Now you can run MaxMSP from inside your favorite rewire host application.
High quality anti-aliased oscillators with rect~, saw~ and tri~ that provide a warmer, more "analogue" sound.
Spectral domain pitch shifting with gizmo~, time domain frequency shifting with freqshift~, fft bin shifting with fbinshift~, hilbert transform with hilbert~
Signal rate sequencing with techno~

poly~ aware envelopes for for easier development of polyphonic synthesizers

User Interface
All in one spectral display with spectroscope~

Edit multiple filters simultaneously using one filtergraph, or view and edit filter coeffecients on the z-plane with zplane~

Imageburgers allow the use of images in place of objects/subpatchers as visual mnemonics
High quality image interpolation for fpic, pictctrl, and imageburger image scaling
Javascript driven User Interface elements:

2D and 3D rendering using OpenGL
antialasing support
alpha blending support
library of prebuilt templates (sliders, knobs, buttons, panels, and more)
pattr compatible

Patcher Attributes
Patcher attributes (pattr) provide a more effective, efficient, and integrated means to handle state management tasks than previously possible in Max.

assign attributes to your patcher file
manage these attributes in presets which support patcher and preset hierarchy
interpolate between presets in a variety of ways
preset files are stored in human editable XML

Programming Languages
Extending the functions of Max with text based code has never been easier, now with support for Javascript, Java, and Mach-O support for C developers. Not only does this make programmers lives easier, but non-programmer users have access to an even wider range of possibilities in Max. Several Javascript and Java examples/objects are included that non-programmers will find useful in every day Maxing.

Javascript
crossplatform scripting with minimal programming experience necessary
build objects that perform complicated tasks with only a few lines of code
script patchers with Javascript code
build interactive user interface objects with jsui
many useful examples including physical simulation, file i/o, UI widgets, list and string manipulation, dynamic arithmetic expressions
Java
crossplatform programming with integrated editor and compilation
access to everything the Java API provides, including rich networking and database support, file i/o, graphics, arbitrary precision arithmetic, and more.
automatically maps Java object methods to max object messages
script patchers with java code
access buffer~ objects from within java
C
Mach-O support for Macintosh. Permits external development using Project Builder, and XCode

Looks like there will be some studying to do after all this summer

[ This Message was edited by: petal on 2004-07-15 16:11 ]

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:22 pm

Petal, can I kiss you?

Where's my credit card...

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:23 pm

You know there's also the free PD or Pure Data clone?
http://www-crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/software.html

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:28 pm

Damn, where has this software been all my life?

One question Bingo: I can't figure out whether pd supports ASIO on Windoze. Any ideas?

Thanks guys, these are fantastic...

Johann

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:29 pm

hehe, well I guess a kiss would be alright

Remember they have a student discount which is 50 % - and a 1-month free trial

Yes, I know about pd, but it isn't as advanced as Max/MSP and it isn't quite as userfriendly as Max/MSP, all though userfriendly might be a far fetched term when talking about Max/MSP....

Thomas

[ This Message was edited by: petal on 2004-07-15 16:40 ]

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:36 pm

On 2004-07-15 16:28, blazesboylan wrote:
One question Bingo: I can't figure out whether pd supports ASIO on Windoze. Any ideas?

It does support ASIO via PortAudio ( http://www.portaudio.com/ )

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:41 pm

max/msp all the way man!
I wonder if it's a free update... being a registered user, I'm wondering why I wasn't notified about this.. gotta get it soon.

Max/msp supports ASIO, but only as its own outputs. To stick a max/msp patch into a VST host, you need Pluggo. Don't look for low latency in max/msp tho, as your patches get complex soon and you'll most likely increase buffers. I usually run at max buffers to maintain both timing and patch complexity.

The new java integration is quite interesting as writing externals for max wasn't quite as easy in older versions. Also, I'm guessing with java style coding, you can do dynamic patches. (patches that dynamically generate and destroy its inner portions) Lets you maximize your peak performance. A big boost since with normal modules, everything is active and takes up processing power.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2004-07-15 16:46 ]

petal · Post by **petal** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 3:43 pm

It's not a free update:

Max/MSP 4.5 Upgrade Information
Max/MSP 4.5 is now available. The list of improvements is extensive. See below for some details, or download the What's New in Max/MSP 4.5 document for complete details.

Paid Upgrade: This is a paid upgrade and will be available as a download or on CD. The introductory retail price is $149 for the Max/MSP upgrade, or $100 if you only own Max (no MSP). After September 30th the Max/MSP upgrade will be $179, and the Max upgrade $119.
We offer student and quantity discounts. Visit the discount page for details.

Free Upgrade: People who purchased Max/MSP or Max after April 1, 2004 will be eligible for a free upgrade.

Recently purchased Upgrades and Crossgrades: People who purchased a Max/MSP or Max upgrade or crossgrade after April 1, 2004 will be eligible for a discount on the 4.5 upgrade. The discount will be the difference between the cost of the new upgrade and the upgrade or crossgrade you recently purchased. For example, $149 (4.5 upgrade) - $29 (crossgrade) = $120 (your cost).

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:28 pm

On 2004-07-15 16:41, kensuguro wrote:
Max/msp supports ASIO, but only as its own outputs. To stick a max/msp patch into a VST host, you need Pluggo.

Are you sure Ken? The partial specs list for the new version doesn't mention any ASIO or VST limitations.

I'm going to have to try MAX/MSP and PortAudio out. PortAudio is also linked to a "PortSoundFile" project-under-discussion. If it were to include OMF, man...

Wow thanks for opening my eyes guys. I can't wait to try this stuff out. I haven't been this excited since I discovered CreamWare!

Cheers,

Johann

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 3:46 am

ya, max/msp has no ASIO limitations. You can't load it as a VST tho. You need Pluggo for that. So what I'm poking at is that max/msp isn't a VST plugin that you stick into your host app. Max/MSP is standalone. Just wanted to make that point clear.

Seeing that you're getting sucked into the max/msp concept, write me e-mail if you want to know anything in particular. I'm max/msp all the way.

blazesboylan · Post by **blazesboylan** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 2:11 pm

Will do, thanks Ken.

Out of curiosity, what kind of SCOPE card setup do you have? Once I've gotten into MAX/MSP (started reading docs last night) I'd be happy to share whatever I build with ya. Ditto for anyone else with MAX/MSP, of course.

Note though that I'm mainly interested in building automation utilities. I'm not doing effects or anything like that.

Cheers,

Johann