Tuesdays: March 16, 23, 30, & April 6, 2010 from 7 to 9 pm

Class size is limited to 10 people, so call 415-554-1977 to reserve your space early.

This is a workshop for users of Live who want to dig deeper into Max for Live.  The ideal participant is comfortable with Live but has little or no experience with Max or M4L.  Max/MSP/Jitter is a graphical programming environment for music, audio and multimedia that has been used worldwide for over fifteen years by performers, composers, artists, teachers, and students.

After completing this course, students will be able to make new M4L devices that process sound and midi in response to real-time control and/or simple algorithmic processes. Graduates of this course will also have the skills to read and understand larger M4L devises and the foundation for exploring more advanced features cir tutorials, help patches and online documentation.

Day 1: Introduction

• What comes with M4L? (A quick tour of useful devices and building blocks.)
• Getting started with Max
• navigating the patcher window
• messages and objects
• getting help
• data types
• file paths

Day 2: MIDI devices and instruments

• Interfacing with controllers via MIDI and OSC
• Managing lists of data: storing, retrieving, and manipulating
• Timing

Day 3: Audio processing

• MSP: how audio works in Max
• Sampling and manipulating samples
• Building audio effects (chorus, flange, reverb, etc.) from scratch
• Classic synthesis

Day 4: Advanced topics

• Live.API: The inner workings of your live set are exposed to Max via this group of objects and methods.
• Video: Using Jitter to add video to your Live world
• Third Party objects: An overview of some where to find programming and inspiration from the Max User community.

for Performers and Teachers

Where: Chiostro S.Maria di Castello, Genova, Italy

When: Sunday, 8 June 2008, 9.30-12.30

Note to Participants: A small number of tablets will be provided for hands-on activties. Please bring your own computer and tablet (if you have one), as well as any music that you would like to work on or share with the workshop. -mz

This is a workshop for people who want to get started with tablet-based interfaces or who want to teach others to use tablet interfaces for music. It is based on my method book (in progress, see paper) and will cover:

Basics

• Short history of pen and tablet based interfaces for music
• Choosing a tablet, styluses, etc. and installing and running on your operating system
• Implementation in musical software including Max/MSP, Pd, and OpenSoundControl

Exercises and Etudes

• Musical games to help build technical skills
• Short études that address both skills and aesthetics

Répertoire

• Workshop presenters will perform and demonstrate their own works, illustrating performance and mapping paradigms that are unique to their situations, as well as general strategies
• Participants will be given a selection of tablet interfaces that could make up a “tablet orchestra.” The final stage of the workshop will be a group performance on diverse tablet instruments.

Participants will leave the workshop with an overview of prior musical work with tablets, specifically recent pieces by members of the NIME Community.  They will also have many pre-built software tools to implement their own work, to continue practicing tablet skills, and to teach in individual and classroom settings.

Presenter:

• Michael Zbyszyński, Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, UC Berkeley
• Special Guest:Nicolas d’Alessandro

Schedule

3 hours – 1 hour lecture followed by a short break and approximately 2 hours of hands-on laboratory and demonstrations

Research for this workshop is partially sponsored by Wacom Co., Ltd.

* Navigating the user interface
* Work flow: organizing multi-file projects, the Max search path, where to save things
* Data types: messages, bangs, integers, floats, and lists. Open Sound Control, audio signals, and Jitter matrices
* Structure and interpretation of Max programs: objects, timing, patchers, and abstractions
* Basics of DSP: sampling, aliasing, amplitude, the frequency spectrum
* Examples of sample playback and looping, synthesis (FM, additive, and granular), audio effects
* Basics of Digital Video: the Jitter Matrix
* Examples of Movie Playback and Manipulation, and Animation with OpenGL
* Dealing with input from controllers and sensors (MIDI, the mouse and keyboard, USB devices, and Ethernet)
* Mixing event processing, signal processing, and matrix processing
* Using the CNMAT Max/MSP/Jitter Depot, an online repository of patches, tutorials, and repertoire.

After completing this course, students will be able to write Max programs that synthesize and/or process sound and video in response to real-time control and/or simple algorithmic processes. Graduates of this course will also have the skills to read and understand larger Max/MSP/Jitter programs and the foundation for exploring more advanced features of Max via tutorials, help patches, and online documentation.

An overview of aesthetic and practical issues of long running, installation-based sound and media artworks. Sound installations are compared to concert music, and site-specific works are examined. Strategies for developing and maintaining robust, reliable, and effective pieces are covered.

		Archived webcasts
		course website

2006: CNMAT Spectral Tutorials

An introduction to CNMAT Technologies, including Spectral Synthesis Objects for Max/MSP, OpenSoundControl, and SDIF.

		Short video about the tutorials (1.7 meg)
		Image of overview page
		link to CNMAT downloads page

Music, Technology and Computers studies the influence of technology upon the musical culture and aesthetics of the United States in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the role of the computer. This study necessarily involves many disciplines: music, physics and acoustics, cognitive science, computer science, electronic audio technology, and media criticism.

Computer Music Composition

The topic is composition using personal computers for digital signal processing and for control of synthesizers. Concentration will be on the theoretical bases of DSP and MIDI, practical computer applications of those ideas, and investigation of computer-aided composition. Work will include lectures, demonstrations, readings, listenings, compositional exercises, and original composition.

Interactive Arts Programming

A study of artistic issues and programming techniques involved in the development of interactive computer music, including theoretical background in computer-human interaction, basic tenets of programming, and practical exercises in programming interactive computer multimedia art.

Graduate Analysis II

This course teches analytic techniques specific to post-tonal music of the 20th Century. Emphasis is placed on the first half of the century, including works by Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Webern.

Socialist Realism

The historical period of the Soviet Union (1917-1989) included and influenced numerous 20th century composers. This was a period of changing censorship and government control of the arts implemented in the name of “socialist realism.” Focussing on music and musicians, this course examines the dynamic of censorship and the evolution of socialist realism across multiple governments and countries.