Here is a list of exercises and projects for the course. Please refer to the syllabus for due dates.
- Exercise 1: Generative Music in Max
As an introduction to Max patching, create a patch that generates notes automatically and plays them on the built-in synthesizer. Learn how to choose parameter values by random or sequential selection from a table. Make presets that let you affect the behavior of the patch while it plays.
- Exercise 2: Making Sound with Auzzie
Use the Max add-on package Auzzie to generate and process sound. Create several layers of sound, and control them with external faders. Understand series and parallel routes for audio.
- Exercise 3: MIDI Control of Auzzie
Design a patch for live performance, with MIDI fader control. Learn how to organize larger patches. Clean up your Max design using encapsulation.
- Exercise 4: Basic Synthesis in Max
Get under the hood and design your own rich sound using native Max oscillators and noise generators.
- Exercise 5: Modulation Synthesis
Explore sub-audio-rate and audio-rate modulation, including ring modulation and FM synthesis, using oscillator and noise modulation sources.
- Exercise 6: Triggering and Controlling Sounds
Use Max messages to trigger sounds and shape them continuously. This is in preparation for Project 1, where we use external hardware to create data streams that let us control sound.
- Project 1: Data-driven Performance Piece
Compose a 2-3 minute piece for a data-driven instrument comprising Max and some kind of controller with continuous data capability, such as a phone or Gametrak.
- Exercise 7: Envelopes and Delays
Process audio using a delay effect of your own design.
- Exercise 8: Cueing Patch State Changes
Learn how to organize the various textures and behaviors in your piece by cue, issued using the spacebar or some other trigger.
- Exercise 9: Buffer Recording and Playing
Record audio from a microphone into a temporary buffer, and then play it.
- Exercise 10: Phase Vocoding in SPEAR
Perform file-based sound modification using a tracking phase vocoder.
- Exercise 11: Introduction to RTcmix
Learn a little bit about using a text-based audio rendering language.
- Project 2: An Extended Composition
Compose a 3-5 minute live-performance piece. It can be performed on data-driven or acoustic instrument(s), with sound rendering in Max. We will hear your pieces in an informal class concert.