Summary

We have seen that Max is inspired by block diagrams and an I connect one device to another workflow that is reinforcing experimentation and visual thinking. Being familiar with Max helps us sometimes to choose between Max/MSP/Jitter for a certain task or use something different. I didn't outline differences between Max and other visual programming languages, concentrating on multimedia expressions like Max's brother environment Pd, Reaktor, vvvv, Usine, Bidule, SynthMaker, TouchDesigner Audulus, and others. There are simply way too many out there. However, we made some progress on understanding the different territories within Max and what their advantages and disadvantages are. In short, we learned that high frequency or very high-timing accuracy leads us to MSP and multidimensional (>2) data that tends to ask for the use of Jitter. The Max domain itself is here for everything else and often it's used to build bridges between the other environments as well.

In the next chapters, we will dive right into Max, and we'll see how to configure it to our needs and customize it, and get some small projects going. We'll get to know Max a lot more and soon, we will build a simple synthesizer, getting ready for more audio processing.