Johnny Greenwood playing guitar through Max/MSP


Here's Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead playing 'Go To Sleep' on Jools Holland, with his guitar being processed though a Max/MSP patch (the full song is here). It inspired me to plug a guitar into the G2 and come up with this [600k mp3] effect, which stores the input in a loop until it's told to spit it out and start over, with an LFO changing the pitch of the loop. Anyway, here is an interview with Jonny where he talks about Max/MSP ("I love it all: I could fill pages with obsessive stuff about Max/MSP. I've even started lurking in chatrooms"). Sometimes, I worry that Jonny Greenwood is just a modern, high-tech, cool version of Michael Angelo Batio... (thanks, Aidan)
UPDATE: Here is my very scrappy Nord Modular G2 Patch.

Ten entertaining videos about Max/MSP


The problem with writing this blog is that people think I am the geekiest man in the world. Fortunately, I know I'm not, because I don't know Max:
1. Scratch monkey This guy has set up a patch (using Miss Pinky) which lets him scratch his own voice, live, using real vinyl records. Does it work? Well, watch the video. You won't forget it.
2. SP-1200 Video Guy turns his classic SP-1200 sampler/drum machine into a video sequencer.
3. Jamie Liddell talking about Max Uniquely, he's using it to make music with both a beat and a tune
4. Sexy Lemur+Max drum sequencer patch When big Mac screens all go multi-touch, we'll all be able to do this...
5. Gamepad-controlled breakcore Just a little bit like Jones in Nathan Barley.
6. Controlling sound using RFID tags Well, yes, that works...
7. Dude with saxophone and twitchy arm Again, does this sound familiar? (Thanks, Steven)
8. Guitar Zeros Nice profile of the band who use Guitar Hero 2 controllers and Max to play live (Contains the excellent phrase "I tweaked out really hard") Here's how to do it yourself.
9. Printball Not actually music, but it uses Max to control a robotic paintball gun which works as a big, slow, noisy, cool injet printer.
10. Paris Hilton Remixed Not her album, but her more famous pr0n video remixed with Max (video pretty much SFW, but turn down your speakers. You've done that already, right?)
Alternatively, for snark-free videos Cycling 74 have a big collection.

Dude builds guitar from Wacom tablet


Really nothing to add. It's an old but amazing video of Jon Cambeul's 'Speech Guitar' - basically a Wacom pad and a Max/MSP patch. Here is a nice shot of Jon busking at the Futuresonic festival in Manchester. (Thanks again to Steven, genius of Max geeking)

Marek's dancing robots are cool


Marek Michalowski is a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. His latest project is Beatbots - cute little robots with microphone noses and video camera eyes which can dance to music. In the video on his site, the 'drum' clip is OK, but the clip of the robot dancing to Spoon's 'I turn my camera on' is fantastic. It's all done with Max/MSP, obviously. (Thanks, J-Chot)

25 great music-making tips from musicians


UPDATE 2014: Advice From Musicians is now a thing - click here to see the best tips submitted by Music Thing readers
In the results of the Music to make you happy survey in February, the things that impressed me most were the answers to the question "What's the best piece of advice about making music that you've ever heard?" Within the 1,100+ responses are hundreds of great tips - some old, some new, some obvious, some arcane. Like these, for starters...
  1. Like Kraftwerk, have a non-music day every week or so (Anonymous computer musician)
  2. If things go wrong, just maintain that you were playing jazz (Max/MSP enthusiast)
  3. Play less (Guitarist, and lots of other people)
  4. When learning to play a piece of music, play it first so slowly that you don't get a single note wrong. Then slowly increase the speed. Then, play louder than normal at the proper speed and you'll play more confidently (A bass player and a synth tweaker)
  5. When editing, don't cut the breath off before someone starts talking or singing (Guitarist)
  6. Finish the first draft (Bass plyer)
  7. It's essential to begin every recording by asking 'Are we Recording?' (Guitarist - is that you, Peter?)
  8. Before you start for the day, go for a long walk (Computer musician)
  9. Listen. Listen very carefully. No. REALLY listen. (A guitarist, although 115 people used the word 'listen' in their tips)
  10. Wear earplugs (Drummer)
  11. Hit it hard, ye massive ponce (Drummer)
  12. Grab some string and bend it. If it doesn't sound right move up a fret and try again. (Guitarist)
  13. Start now, don't wait (Keyboard player)
  14. Get into the groove / Boy, you've got to prove / Your love to me (Guitarist)
  15. Retune your guitar, so you don't know the notes, then try making music with only your ears as guides (Keyboard player)
  16. Tune your guitar, play in time (Guitarist)
  17. Do it in triplets! (Programmer)
  18. Make, go sleep and check again tomorrow... (Synth tweaker)
  19. You may think you're playing your instrument, but what you're really playing is the audience (Studio engineer)
  20. Keep your cigarette lighter away from my drummer - He'll set fire to anything that burns (Nord Modular enthusiast)
  21. Do something every day. Even if all you do is make a beat or write some lyrics or a bassline or whatever, do something. Even if you just have a few minutes a day to spare, the material you have quickly builds up (Field recordist)
  22. "Play more things that make me dance around and less things that make me sit and look miserable in a plastic chair" - Brian Eno (Guitarist)
  23. Learning any instrument is about scales. Scales. Scales. Scales. The trick is to make learning the scales interesting. Which is hard. And I've never done it. Which is a shame (Studio engineer)
  24. Never listen to the same loop for longer than 10 minutes (Beat maker)
  25. Write as many songs as you can and pick the best (Guitarist)
To be continued...

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eBay of the day: Anorectal Transducer. Yes, it's what you're thinking. Yes, it's used.

Noooooooooo! eBay item 380050845372 is a B&K Type 1850 Anorectal ultrasound transducer. Yes, you put it there, connect it to an ultrasound machine, and it produces awesome 3D images. The auction contains the unforgettable lines: "Comes in nice wood box. Came from working environment." Noooooooooo!32 I'm assuming that one of you dear readers has $2,499 to drop on this, and plans to connect it to Max/MSP and create the most terrifying musical instrument in history... (Thanks, Paul)

Spooky Hammer Horror / Wicker Man / Theremin / MaxMSP mashup

Here's Spacedog at the Brighton Festival Fringe, managing to use a Theremin on a Hammer Horror-related track (a splendid cover of Willow's Song from the Wicker Man) in a way that isn't tiresome. Taking the sound output, feeding it into a Max/MSP patch which the pitch to scrub through a sample. Presumably you could to the same with a Kaoss Pad, but it does work very well.. Create Digital Music has the full tech specs. (Thanks, Sarah)

Dude tapes drum triggers to clothes. Actually sounds OK!


Here's Chris Mandra, who - like many of us - thought 'I'm really good at drumming on my leg. I should, like, connect that to a drum machine and a max/MSP looping patch and some footpedals'. Only he actually did it, and it sounds OK, doesn't it? (via Adam Baer)

How to: Turn a bowl of water into an $8 audio controller


Sebastian Tomczak is an Australian musician/programmer/video game hacker. This video shows how he turned a laser pointer, a bowl of water, a solar panel and (I'm guessing) a Max/MSP patch into a (nearly) musical instrument. He's developed the concept into the Toriton Plus, with five lasers. It's beautiful, although I get nervous seeing that bowl of water next to a laptop... (Thanks, Steven)

Incredible home-brew MIDI and USB guitars

Doug writes: "I liked the Kaoss Pad Guitar very much. I like complete control over my digital music and I have built two guitars that do just that. One controls midi parameters, the other uses a usb interface into max/msp." Doug's page is here, with some noise-tastic sound samples here. The Steinberger style guitar on the right is "equipped with two cds cells (light sensors), two pressure sensors, internal feedback loop and four sliders rescued from a salvage yard. It uses MIDI to control parameters to virtually any electronic device.", while the one on the left "Has all electronics built inside of it. It has one infrared sensor, one internal kill switch, 8 external switches and 12 potentiometers to control external electronics via USB interface". Amazing work, Doug!

VowelSynth - Playable DIY speech synthesizer

Matt Gilbert (who blog-watchers will remember as the creator of the scrollbar scarf) has been thinking about speech synths: "Speech synthesis is usually about converting text to speech, but what if you approached it differently?" He designed a great-looking instrument out of curved wood, string, rubber bands and faders. As you press on the strings, it triggers a Max/MSP patch which emulates a voice. It's can't speak, but gets pretty close to singing. As ever, this makes no sense until you see this slightly freaky demo video [QT](thanks, Roberto)

Wonder vs Jones at the 1985 Grammy Awards

Apologies for yet more YouTube stuff, but I'm watching this now, because pretty soon it will have all evaporated.
1) The astonishing and awful 'Synthesizer Medley' from the 1985 Grammy awards, with Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hanckock, Thomas Dolby (miming with a TR606), Howard Jones (bless him), and a ludicrous mountaing of synths. here (The full story is here, including Stevie Wonder's very mean practical joke on Herbie Hancock.)
2) Human League playing 'Being Boiled' on Granada TV in 1978 (none more analog) here
3) Iggy doing 'The Passenger' Live in 1978, complete with horse tail here.
4) Bowie's astonishing 'Soul Train' appearance in 1975 (can you believe this clip is 31 years old?) here
5) Sun Ra playing live, proving you don't need Max/MSP and experimental interfaces to make extreme wierd shit here
6) Kate Bush doing 'The Man with the Child in his Eyes' on SNL here
7) The full 18 minute video for Flowered Up's 'Weekender' - this should be in the British Museum... here
8) Prince at the Brits last week with Wendy & Lisa & Shiela E (Stick with it, the first song is tiresome) here
9) Trent Reznor plays Billy Idols' 'Eyes Without A Face' sometime in the early '80s here
10) Madonna's ludicrous appearance with Tim Westwood on 'Pimp My Ride' (check out the very theatrical cocaine sniff half way through, just before she starts writhing on the floor) here
BONUS: Delia Derbyshire speaks here

A cheapo alternative to the Lemur controller

It's hard not to lust after the fantastically cool and clever Jazzmutant Lemur synth controller. But if you don't have €2190 and an enthusiasm for Max/MSP, Danish developers Livelab's Tablet 2 Midi software could be the next best thing. It's currently beta, but shouldn't cost more than €50. You can pick up a basic tablet PC for £200-£250 on eBay (the Fujitsu Stylistic range is the absolute bottom of the range), and a cheap usb/midi cable. Of course, it will only be mono-touch (the Lemur can take simultaneous movements from ten (or more) fingers. And the Lemur software is the best looking music software I've ever seen. This isn't. And you'll look pretty dorky with a cruddo HP tablet PC. But it's cheap, and until Behringer announce the £150 LM-2000 Multitouch Instrument at NAMM 2006, it's all we've got. (via Matrix Synth)

Cool analog table/sequencer interface

Bradon from Paraportable built an installation using a table covered in copper contacts, two copper-bottomed glasses, a Doepfer Drehbank MIDI controller and the inevitable computer running Max/MSP. It uses the CV inputs on the Drehbank - as the cups make circuits in the table, different voltages flow into it, creating different sounds. No video yet, unfortunately, but it should be on the way. Project Page. (Thanks, Shawn)

Planetary synthesis for beginners

Kaden writes: "Serious synthesists use a $30,000 custom spec'd Wiard/Blacet hybrid modular driven by an open source Max/MSP fractalizer algorhythm with a neurofeedback front end to get this EXACT SOUND.
"Nasa uses a planet. Show-offs."

Russian homemade DJ cassette decks

DJ AptemArtyom is a new MT hero - he's done what I always dreamed of doing when I was little and couldn't afford a pair of Technics. He's built a pair varispeed tape decks, complete with 'jog wheel', EQ and motor off switches. He also has a nice minimal studio setup (he only uses Max/MSP). DJ Aptem, we salute you! Here is the Flickr photoset, and here is DJ Artyom's own website, with mix MP3s getting very heavy traffic. (Thanks, Tommy and Waxy)

How to sync a 16-tonne steam engine to your laptop

VIDEO WEEK: Thanks to 'Susan' in NYC East London for pointing me towards the Steam Driven project. The video on the site contains many good things: People using 'laser gates' to synchronise laptops (I think running Max/MSP) with the movements of a huge steam engine, then jamming along with the engine with guitars and Adrenalinn FX boxes. It all happened a couple of weeks ago in Brighton.

Massage interface for music

Wiley (from the wonderful Video Thing) writes with news of a Squeezable Interface for music making, created by four guys at the University of British Columbia. "Imagine massaging someone with your hands and fingers. Now imagine massaging a tabletop in the same way. Not quite the same, right?" They're tryining to invent something which is more like a shoulder, less like a touchpad. The system works with a bit of rubber glove material, painted with spots, and stretched in front of a webcam. The webcam captures the dots, and translates them into something which Max/Msp can understand. As always with these graduate projects, the heroically geeky video [21mb divx] explains it better than I can - but there isn't anything in it about specific music uses.

'Le Cybersongosse' modular synth for kids

André writes: "I'm a French reader of your blog and I found him every time so interesting and so astonish." Which is the nicest thing anyone's ever said about MT. He brings news of 'Le Cybersongosse', a fantastically psychedelic music machine for teaching recording and synthesis to schoolchildren. I think it looks like a cross between between Sly Stone's organ, a Buchla 200e and Jörgen Bergfors' incredible DIY modular. This PDF leaflet explains everything. It's a hardware interface to MAX/MSP software running on a G5. If this is what passes for education in French schools, it's no wonder Daft Punk sound like they do.

Eric and his Sonic Banana

I'm always slightly paranoid about being hoaxed on Music Thing. I was very, very dubious about the reality of Godfried Willem Raes, and I'm still not convinced that Belinda Bedekovic is kosher. So I'm pretty sure that Eric Singer's website is a trail for some wacky BBC2 comedy series (perhaps a spin off from Look Around You) The pitch is that Eric is "a Brooklyn-based musician, artist, engineer and programmer with 20 years of arts and multimedia programming" who has created a Max/MSP controller called the Sonic Banana, which he plays in these video clips, while staring deep into your soul. I think the site designers jump the shark when they claim that Eric reached the semi-finals of Junkyard Wars as part of a team called "The Brooklyn Benders". That's just silly. (Thanks Ray!)
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