A visually oriented programming environment for audio and multimedia production. Max was conceived in 1986 as a project for producing interactive music at IRCAM in Paris. The original author was Miller Puckette. Max was offered commercially from Opcode Systems in 1991, and in 2000 Cycling ’74 became the publisher. Since that time, Max has expanded to include audio data (with the introduction of MSP, a collection of audio objects) and image/matrix data (with the introduction of Jitter).
Max allows you to create your own software using a visual toolkit of objects, and connect them together with virtual patch cords. The basic environment that includes MIDI, control, user interface, and timing objects is called “Max.” The audio processing tools comprise the companion software, MSP.
Max is based on the C programming language, but is easy to use for those familiar with almost any other programming language, or even for those who have never programmed before.
Max was named in honor of synthesis pioneer Max Mathews, who first demonstrated music synthesis on a digital computer in 1957.
