Max Highlights

What If We’re Stupid

I developed these patches from May to December 2021. I started with the projection patch, developing a series of modules that I could rearrange to create engaging visual environments. One of my goals with the projections was to have a trajectory through the piece, with distinct sections. I adapted my scene system I had used with the echoes concert with New Music Ensemble. However the scenes were used for a single piece in this instance, as opposed to one scene per piece with the New Music Ensemble concert.

The audio component of this piece is my most complex to date. I have four distinct audio patches. One processing patch for the instrumental performer that used a variety of effects, a processing patch for a laptop player that concentrates on recording and sampling. I used synth patch that uses my DX7 emulator, and a percussion patch that uses a custom percussion synth as well as a cymbal and kick synth based on the TR909. The piece is developed for either a solo laptop player or a laptop ensemble. Check out a video of the solo version below.

DX7 Emulator

This set of patches came out of two interests: getting more experience with gen and learning more about the DX7. The DX7, known for its terrible UI (or lack of UI), was one of the most iconic sounds of the 80s. These set of gen patches and abstractions emulate all 8 algorithms of the DX7 and comes with abstractions to control the parameters. The example patch in the link below shows you how the patch works as well as has a system to randomize all the parameters with a single button.

eternal

One of my more advanced sequencers I put together in Max and it encapsulates a good portion of my patching philosophies. First, the patch is always doing something. There is a chord sequencer that gives pitches to the synths to randomly sequence through. The patch randomly moves through the chords without any interaction after a period of time. The synths randomly fade in and out and adjust the parameters all without interaction. This way, if I am focused on a specific module, the patch is still constantly moving and evolving. This system I have adapted to a good portion of my more complex patches. Check out the performance below.

record_me

This is my most abused abstraction (other than mc.yafr2). I use this patch all the time to get clean stems of my patch for mixing and editing in post. My most recent edit of the patch includes a auto-crop, playback and normalization feature. Completely controllable in the top level patcher but also works great in another window.

freeze_pfft

A spectral freeze pfft patcher that has the ability to glissando from freeze frame to freeze frame using jit.slide.