Volume 1

Volume 1: Expression with the Morph in Max - Topics

Download

Max patches at https://github.com/sensel/C74-Max-Examples

Explore with BEAP

Start with some basics with monophonic expressions. Using the BEAP modules, we’ll build a patch that creates a compelling and unique sound design with only a few connections. It’s a great introduction on the basics of Max but relevant to any modular workflow and designing sound with pressure and location. patch: Live Stream.maxproj/MPE in BEAP.maxpat

MIDI

Using the Temporal Conduit Oscillator patch, we’ll get into how to adapt an existing patch to a Morph Overlay. It’s pretty simple, thanks to Max 8’s MIDI Map feature, so it’s an easy way to get your Morph working with someone else’s work.

We’ll also check out a visual patch where we use MIDI and the innovator’s overlay to animate a 3D puppet.

Scaling

The Morph is all about feeling. Max is a great way to dial that in, or find something new. We’ll go through some different ways of tuning the data from the Morph so you can dial in how your gestures affect your art.

MPE and VST

Possibly the easiest way to get rich sound out of Max is to use plugins. This lets you focus on interaction, rather than coding DSP.

This is a big change. So how do we adapt? For many that question is a lot harder than for others, because their lives depended on an ever changing place, or a place with a constantly changing crowd. To try to figure this out, Sensel is introducing a series of live streams on YouTube to educate and inspire. 

Trumpet players use the refined term embouchure to describe how their mouth meets the brass. We regular folk would probably describe its basic sound with the obnoxious term “raspberry.” 

Although she is a classically trained trumpet player with impressive tone, Sarah Belle Reid would likely embrace the later, and then turn it into a compositional inspiration.

Instead of further perfecting her classical ability, she has taken an adventurous journey to play with the sonic extremes she can coax from her instrument. She then takes the data of her motions, and augments her trumpet with the extremes of electronic sound. The result is a magnificent soundscape that constantly surprises and sometimes offends. 

That she is able to take gestures that are musical for the trumpet and apply them to unmusical sounds, then wrestle them into something we can call music again is really the dilemma of any electronic musician. We were really drawn to this achievement, so the Buchla Thunder Overlay seemed like a natural companion for what she does - an interface infused with music-mechanic ideas, but with no musical legacy in its design. It is only concerned with the musical future, a future that Sarah Belle Reid is playfully guiding us to. 

We captured some of this spirit in our short film - we hope you can be inspired by it!