Robert Henke, co-founder of Ableton has released some interesting looking Max for Live devices on his website – http://www.monolake.de/technology/m4l.html. Devices include:
- The legendary PX-18 step sequencer
- Black – "A simple device which does two things: It displays songtime in hours:minutes:seconds- at least as long as you are working with a constant song tempo. And it allows to black out the computer screen while listening to the music…"
- Distance – "This audio effect device is for those who are into careful placement of sonic events in the stereo field."
- Circular Doppler – "Two virtual microphones rotate around a single sound source. Doppler delays, distance dependent amplitude modulation and filtering included. Movement of source and microphones synced to song position. This allows 100% reproducible effects."
- Grain Freeze – “A granular audio freezer effect. Creates lush textures out of everything!”
Timer permitting, he indicated he’ll be uploading more devices in the future.
In other Max for Live releted news. The Ableton Denver meetup presents “An Evening with Darwin Grosse from Cycling '74” – http://www.meetup.com/Ableton-Denver/calendar/12088339/. Meetup is Jan 24h, 2010 at the Walnut Room in Denver at 7:00 p.m. If you live in the Denver area register for the meetup and swing on by and say hi.
Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Composer, Sound Designer
Louisville/Denver/Boulder
http://www.modulatethis.com
http://www.markmoshermusic.com
http://www.twitter.com/markmosher
Mark Mosher 
2 responses to “Max For Live News: Ableton Live Co-Founder Henke Releases Max for Live Devices + Ableton Denver Meetup “Presents An Evening with Darwin Grosse from Cycling ’74””
Hi Torley,
I actually haven’t taken the plunge yet. As an ex-software developer, I’ve been hesitant to jump in as I’m affraid it might suck time away from making music. Currently I spend my “programming” energies on sampling and synthesis work.
I too have been watching the community grow and I hope it becomes a “managed community” to make it easy for to find great devices and learn.
I have to say I’ve been quite curious to try the “premium” devices and Henke’s additional presets pushed me over the edge and last night I download the trial. Quick tip, many devices don’t show up until you go into the lessons and click the link to install the device over the network.
After playing with Max for Live devices for an hour or so I have to say that Loop Shifter and Buffer Shuffler are quite cool – especially Loop Shifter. Henke’s PX-18, Circular Doppler, and Grain Freeze are very useful as well.
My conclusion after messing with it for an hour is that I think there are two main audiences who will benefit from Max for Live. 1) The non-programming Live user who wants access to more cool devices to boost creativity and add more tools to their production arsenal 2) Programmers.
As an APC40 owner (I’ll include Launchpad owners as well) I’m interested in Max for Live’s ability to extend the capability of these devices.
I wish there were two price points. It would be great of the “read-only” versions of the devices were available as an add-on or part of “Suite”. I’m baulking at the $299 price since I’m not as likely to program devices by hand. If it were $99 for read-only I’d buy instantly!!! Of course an upgrade path to full on version would be necessary should I get the time or inclination to make a device ;^)
Perhaps after I see Darwin’s talk I may cave and get Max for Live.
Mark
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I haven’t hopped on Max for Live yet but it is tempting me to see devices like this come out — I hope in the longer-term, browsing through all user-created Max for Live devices will be far more elegant and effective than it has been for Native Instruments’ Reaktor on their site. While there’s a necessary aspect of geekiness to this, I’ve long prized Live for making novel concepts so accessible and encouraging people from a non-technical musical background to get involved.
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