KVR Audio

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 8:46 am

I want to get into this area of creation. Where is best to begin? Learn c/c++? Obtain an in depth knowledge of how DSP works? I am familiar with synthesis such as subtractive, additive, FM, wavetable, granular etc and would like to learn more.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:20 am

chris979899 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 8:46 am I want to get into this area of creation. Where is best to begin? Learn c/c++? Obtain an in depth knowledge of how DSP works? I am familiar with synthesis such as subtractive, additive, FM, wavetable, granular etc and would like to learn more.

What does 'MAX' in your subject title refer to? What 'area of creation' are you talking about? Are you asking about the MAX/MSP software? If so, why are you asking about c/c++

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:53 am

Yes max msp. Creation of music/ music programs. I didn't know whether a basic level of c/c++ programming knowledge would help me understand programming in max msp. Hence the ask for help.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 11:07 am

They are different levels.
If you want to understand Max, learn Max.
Or try a free variant, PureData: https://puredata.info
Of course there are others, and they all have advantages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_a ... _languages

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:00 pm

OK thanks

Xenakios · Post by **Xenakios** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:04 pm

chris979899 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:53 am Yes max msp. Creation of music/ music programs. I didn't know whether a basic level of c/c++ programming knowledge would help me understand programming in max msp.

When you know enough about Max/MSP, you might eventually want to code new external objects for it in C or C++. (Or just switch over to doing things completely in C or C++.) But I think most Max/MSP users are fine using existing objects.

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:22 pm

Look in the Max docs:
https://cycling74.com/sdk/max-sdk-7.3.3/html/index.html
and the Max forums, e.g.
https://cycling74.com/forums/how-should ... al-in-2017

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:23 pm

chris979899 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 10:53 am Yes max msp. Creation of music/ music programs. I didn't know whether a basic level of c/c++ programming knowledge would help me understand programming in max msp. Hence the ask for help.

Max is a visual programming language, C and C++ are traditional text-based programming languages.
Max is also event-based, ie operations have to be triggered, or work on continuous streams of audio data. Traditional programming languages dont tend to intrinsically work like that.

So, whilst a knowledge of some programming language would always be useful at some level, the fundamental operation paradigms of Max are rather different from anythign except similar visual programming languages for audio (eg PureData and, to a certain extent things like Reaktor).

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:48 pm

Andy Farnell's truly amazing book "Designing Sound" explains the visual programming paradigm so well, and it applies to both Pd and Max.
The "cheetomoskeeto" YouTube channel has super-clear tutorials on Pd, and he switches between Pd and Max in his explanations. You can download Pd and follow along, all for free. He also has a series on creating externals in C.

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:29 pm

I see thanks guys. Michael I was looking at that book yesterday seen it before it looks like a good read. Currently reading a book on mixing so will give it a read after that.

I will look into that youtube channel also. Are any of the max books on their cycling website good for beginners?

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:46 pm

chris979899 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:29 pm Are any of the max books on their cycling website good for beginners?

The 4th edition Cipriani/Giri one is probably the most useful.

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:53 pm

Ace cheers. Final amateur question.. is it worth getting into pure data as a novice first? (regardless of it being free)

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:09 pm

chris979899 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2019 1:53 pm Ace cheers. Final amateur question.. is it worth getting into pure data as a novice first? (regardless of it being free)

The UI isnt as pretty or polished, and the tutorial material is a bit more 'crowsourced', but yeah, its a viable starting point, especially if cost is an issue, or if you want to work on a wider range of platforms (eg raspberry pi).

pottering · Post by **pottering** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 5:34 pm

This course is nice:

https://www.kadenze.com/courses/program ... rts-i/info

chris979899 · Post by **chris979899** » Wed Oct 16, 2019 7:19 pm

That looks ace