this is joshua goldberg's max/msp/nato web area. welcome.

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Max is a high-level visual programming environment available from the fantastic people at Cycling '74. It was originally designed as a tool to intercept, manipulate and sequence MIDI messages, but with the addition of a serial in/out tool, a DSP environment called MSP, and a psychotically elegant video mixing/compositing environment called nato+0.55, it has become, in my opinion, the most exciting multimedia software on the market today.

I just started working with Max in February 2000, through Daniel Palkowski's MIDI Workshop class at ITP. I had seen it on screens around the school every now and then, and I was drawn to the look of Max patches, which are composed of objects (boxes) connected by patch cords (lines). When I finally began to use it, I realized that its combination of math, music, visual aesthetics and alchemical process-oriented creation made it the ideal vehicle for my ideas.

Max 4 was released at the end of May. It has all sorts of important enhancements and updates, not the least of which is the ability to script patch generation. This makes Max truly object oriented, instead of just a pale graphic shadow of object oriented.


I consider Max incomplete without some specific groups of third-party externals. These are links to the externals that have made my life a little easier.


My patches... here's a sampling in order from most recent to oldest. The oldest are getting to be really embarassing. Take them as a representation of evolution. Some standalones, some simple patchers. The non-standalones need externals from the above section! Needless to say, this is my code. If you recontextualize (uh, steal) it, it's ok as long as I get some credit. Please don't make me put legalese on my site; it will make me cry.


These are my abstractions- encapsulated patchers that simplify processes I use quite frequently. If the numbers 242 are mentioned, it uses objects that are part of nato modular.



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Email me with comments at josh@goldbergs.com.