The Art of Max for Live

Designed & written by Julien Bayle, artist, Ableton Certified Trainer & Max Certified Trainer, this comprehensive book teaches you how to create your own instruments, effects, generators, and interfaces, while diving into the rich Max environment. Learn to take full control of Live through the Live Object Model (LOM), and build your Live MIDI Tools to design your own creative workflow. A unique springboard to push your creative boundaries and transform Live into a fully customized sonic laboratory

It is available in French and English versions.

You can buy it on Leanpub &  Gumroad platforms.

It will enable you to:

• Dive deeply into Max environment.

• Master the fundamental concepts of Max for Live — from patching to deployment in Live.

• Create your own instruments and sound generators, with concrete examples and professional techniques.

• Design custom MIDI and audio effects, exploring processing architectures, side-chaining, multichannel and advanced interactions.

• Build sophisticated interfaces, integrating interactive controls and dynamic visual feedback, with the [live.xxx] object families.

• Gain an in-depth understanding of the Live Object Model (LOM) and learn how to interact with Live via patching and JavaScript.

• Go further with JavaScript (and V8) scripting, to control Live, automate, observe, modulate and manipulate the internal structure of your Live projects in real time.

• Create your own Live MIDI Tools, thanks to the new features of Ableton Live 12, and open the door to advanced algorithmic manipulations in the Clip view.

But above all, this book is also the perfect excuse to learn Max in its own right. As the chapters progress, you will discover the richness of the Max environment: its logics, its paradigms, its essential objects, its subtleties. Even if you have never used it before, you will become capable of designing complex, generative, interactive systems – far beyond Live.

This book is the result of more than 15 years of practice and teaching, designed for creators, artists, musicians, researchers and makers. It will guide you step by step, from a reminder of the fundamentals of digital audio and MIDI to the creation of professional peripherals.

Whatever your starting point – curious beginner or advanced Live user – this guide will enable you to push the boundaries of your creativity and transform your Live environment into a true custom-made laboratory.

A reference manual, demanding, comprehensive and designed for practice… and for exploring the immensity of Max itself.

This book is also an ideal excuse to learn Max. As the chapters progress, you will discover the richness of the Max environment: its logic, its paradigms, its essential objects, its subtleties. Even if you have never used it, you will become capable of designing complex, generative, interactive systems — far beyond Live.

It will provide our current and future learners with a valuable book and a direct application of what can be explored, developed and constructed with the Max environment.