Cycling ’74 Max 8 is coming in September of 2018. Here is a summary of some of what’s coming plus some videos of some of my early VIZZIE work.
Patching Improvements
Groups: The ability to group objects together so they can be easily selected and adjusted as needed.
Pan and Zoom: This lets you move around and focus in on the parts you are working on while also being able to easily jump out to a global view.
Event Probing: Watch events and messages passing through patch cords, giving you an immediate glance at what’s really going on in your patcher.
Patch Cord Insert: You can now shift-drag an object over an existing patch cord to insert that object into the patch cord. You can also shift-drag an object away from a patch cord to remove it. This means the common task of adding or removing an object between two other objects happens in a single step.
Personally, Patch Cord Insert is going to be kind of a game changer for me as it’s going to make patching so much faster.
Watch video “Max 8 First Look: Patching Improvements“.
VIZZIE 2
Eight years ago we introduced Vizzie – a modular and easy way to get started with Jitter visuals in Max. Previously Vizzie processed video pixels on the CPU, resulting in performance problems with large patches. For Max 8, we’ve updated Vizzie to take full advantage of the processing power of your graphics hardware for a big speed boost. In addition to the improved frame rates, Vizzie now easily integrates with 3D graphics and other work that relies on OpenGL in Jitter.
Check out the video “Max 8 First Look: Vizzie 2”
Dipping My Toe in the VIZZIE Pool
I’ve been working with Resolume for years now for real-time visual synthesis with live camera input. I automate Resolume through Ableton Live MIDI clips through virtual MIDI ports. My existing show allows for environmental “chance operations” via live camera and audio input.
I’m putting a new show together at the moment and in want to explore introducing more programmatic and intense aleatoric visual elements to the show. With all the performance improvements in the works, I’ve started Exploring VIZZIE in the current version.
I have used BEAP synthesizer before (see my posts on BEAP) – so jumping into VIZZIE just felt easy and made sense. Here are some very short videos on my Vimeo channel with quick early experiments using only a few modules :^)
After these early experiments I’m really looking forward to VIZZIE 2!
Mappings
Ok, back to what’s new with MAX 8. Mappings.
Inspired by the intuitive MIDI and Key Map function in Ableton Live, the Max 8 Mappings feature allows you to quickly connect your hardware to your patch without any additional programming.
Node for Max
Popular in creative coding and web development communities, Node is a JavaScript framework for software applications. It makes it easy to use web services, whether pulling information from a remote data source or interfacing with a social network. The Node for Max feature lets you do it all from within a Max patcher.
I think the video below will help you wrap your head around this one more if your not familiar with Node.
Max Console
The Max Window is already a popular way to gather information about how your patcher is working. For Max 8 we made a number of improvements to support getting a quick view of just the information you need, when you need it.
Links to More Info
Cycling continues to add info on their web site and videos to their YouTube channel as we get closer to the release of Max 8. Use links below to stay up to date with the news.
- “A First Look at Max 8” page https://cycling74.com/products/new-max-version-8
- Cycling’74 YouTube Playlist for Max 8
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Mark Mosher
Synthesist & Multimedia Artist
Artist Site: NewEcho.com
Electronic Music Tech & Production Blog: ModulateThis.com
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