Thank you so much. I’ll check this out today. I’ve been using 2 metros with one half speed instead. I’ve been downloading patches and libraries, exploring old forums, reading every help box, reading The PDFs and free books online about Puredata, there’s just so much to take in.
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I was going through some of the SC tutorial last night. I have 0 coding background but am beginning to be interested in it as I get older. I can see the appeal, I just need to read and watch more tutorials.
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Awesome! Yeah, start slow and don’t underestimate the amount of mileage you can get out of a few simple parts in a clever configuration.
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That’s the tutorials I have been watching. I’ll watch some of that stuff then copy and paste things from the internet and mess around with it. I can see the potential and ease of use if you know what to do
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Yeah I have noticed there’s a lot that can be done with a small amount of lines. It’s Mind blowing after spending a few weeks with PD, lol.
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I see your Max patches and songs, I’m genuinely impressed!
Do you use only max, or is ran through ableton as well? I would really like to know how you’ve got so acquainted with Max.
I tagged you in this thread, so I don’t stray off topic in the “current sounds” thread.
Cheers.
So far I’m pretty much just using Max.
The two finished tracks I’ve done so far both got recorded through Ableton with a tiny bit of compression and limiting and I have used a little bit of Valhalla supermassive and Arturia’s MS20 filter in a couple of patches here and there while I figure out building reverbs and filters for myself.
I’ve definitely found my way around a lot quicker than I’d anticipated (for context, I’m not that smart, haven’t used a computer for nearly a decade and found the Octatrack’s recording setup baffling in the extreme) but there’s a lot still to learn. YouTube tutorials have been very helpful in figuring out the basics, then the rest is just about experimenting, trial and error and a fair few happy accidents.
The thing that I think sets Max apart though is the way the help patchers and console work, as it’s so easy to look up how things work or copy and paste examples of setups and when things go wrong, they come up straight away in the console, so you can troubleshoot really easily.
I set out using a laptop and Max because I just wasn’t getting any free time to sit in a room with my hardware and get anything done. The aim was that I can fill up all the little gaps in my day learning stuff, and it’s worked out really well.
If I can learn what I’ve learned in a month, it can’t be that hard.
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I think you underestimate your natural facility, or your focus, or the carry over of your hardware knowledge, or something, cos I’ve programmed computers for a living for 20+ years, and I never made anything close to as good as your recent output.
Not that I’m trying to dissuade the OP, or anyone for following your lead. Just would hate for them to look at what you’ve done, and set a high bar for themselves that causes them to quit before they make progress.
EDIT: do a screen cast where you make a thing? I’d love to see your thought/work process
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I agree, I think the last few years of dicking around with hardware have made it possible, especially the modular stuff.
If I’d started out with Max years ago, I’d have been lost (I actually had Reaktor about 10 years ago and barely touched it). It’s largely been the way it’s been because of what I’ve learned up to this point.
I’m also a big believer in certain things working for certain people. There are some interfaces I struggled with from day one, whereas others just seem to click very quickly.
Also, time will tell exactly what a clever clogs I am. It’s all well and good building a few bits and bobs here and there, but the challenge I’ve set myself is to go deep and really master something for once, so we’ll see where I am in a year or so, after all, you all know what a fickle twat I can be…
Might do, but I’m still trying to ge to the bottom of the weird right channel dominance issue when I’m casting before I try adding channels.
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Max is much easier to learn/use than Pure Data , simply because it has better support resources (help patches etc) and debug/watch tools.
also Max has RNBO, Gen etc… which are fantastic, and integration with Live (which is ‘ok’)
(and then a bit unrelated, but things like Jitter are cool)
Pure Data strength is, it can be run on so many different platforms, including Bela and Raspberry PI, and a few eurorack modules - which means Ive had a LOT more fun with it.
(though RNBO is changing the balance for me 
)
so, what Id recommend to newcomers is…
download and learn on Max.
once you are familiar with Max, most of that experience will transfer to Pure Data…
(so don’t feel you are locked into max)
but neither Max nor PD is hard to learn, you just need to have do it.
BUT if you have programming experience, you may find this visual programming annoying as hell
even with its abstractions etc etc (yes, Ive done quite a bit of max and pd ;))
its a tangled mess, which you spend way too much time formatting to avoid.
what I did for one project (Orac) was do all the main coding in C++ and just used Pure Data to ‘glue stuff together’ … that worked quite well, complex coding in C++, with PD just doing higher level patching.
(its a fun project, as Orac dynamical writes pure data patches, and patches into other exiting pure data patches 
)
so for those with programming skills, Supercollider is a much better option in my opinion.
sure, its esoteric at first, but its much better to build up into things…
code as text, is always better 
BUT there are a ton of other choices, and even the above, you can use in different ways,
it really depends on what you are trying to do…
e.g. particularly live coding, things like SonicPI are good places to get started.
these days, I use a lot of different things… and flit between them based on task.
I’ll admit mainly I use C++, and do a bit of interacting with PD/Max (i.e. write externals),
but as above, my recent projects have been using RNBO.
so I write max patches, which are then converted to C++ and integrated into my C++ Vst-like code, to target a percussa SSP module.
as I said, all depends on what you are trying to achieve.
all these tools are pretty cool
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Yes indeed, Ed DMX made a drum machine using Bela and PD, it was pretty impressive in itself but even more so given that he had no prior experience in PD or building hardware instruments, as well as being one of the UK’s most prolific and talented techno/electro artists!
I’d like to do something like that on my Organelle, eventually.
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Don’t belittle yourself like that. You’ve only had Max for a month? that’s ridiculous, in an amazing way. You have a connection with it my man.
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I started with Puredata and SC. I have absolutely no coding background, so I was drawn more towards Puredata. PD just throttles so hard on my PC, its hard to do anything complex. SC has been a fun venture for me, but I just don’t like the way coding strings work. I have tried so many times to find it enjoyable through different methods, but it’s just a fun kill to me for some reason. To each is own, eh? I used ORac inside of an organelle I believe, orac 2.0. I borrowed the organelle for a brief time from the library. It is an amazing little device, I see the appeal of it and if you really know what you’re doing, the only limit is the cpu.
While we’re on this topic, have you explored other opensource instruments/fx ?
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This is mind blowing. I want one 0<0
I have been working through the examples in the Supercollider book over the last few days. It can be found on the net if you are looking and I think the examples in the first chapter are more fun than those in the main tutorial. I can see a lot of potential for making interesting generative sequences, especially if getting MIDI out of it works as advertised (I haven’t tried that bit yet).
I get the appeal of the more graphical environments like PD or Max, as text code can seem confusing to the uninitiated, but it seems thoughtfully designed as a language and coding environment such that you can still get good results without being an ace programmer. You can basically just run one command at a time and it will make sounds and there’s a way of specifying your synth definitions that will give you a GUI with sliders to adjust parameters on the fly.
I need to spend more time with this and see if I can replicate and expand on my experiments of chaining 9000 effects in Ableton.
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There is PlugData out that combine PureData + ELSE lib + Cyclone lib and can be used as a VST/LV/AU plugin also.
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I’ve been messing with PlugData a bit lately and it looks very promising. I’ve dabbled with Pure Data over the years but never enough to really become proficient. But with PlugData having the capability to be used as an audio effect, that’s giving me some motivation to try to learn more.