Major Upgrade Delivered with Max 4 and MSP 2
October 16, 2001
Cycling '74 recently released Max 4 and MSP 2 - the first
major upgrades to this Mac-OS interactive graphical programming environment in over five years.
Enhancements to Max include extensive new user-interface building tools and advanced features
such as scripting and high-precision scheduling. MSP 2 adds numerous capabilities and objects
including polyphony management, waveform display, and graphical filter design. Together, these
programs are the building blocks of incredible audio applications.
Max, a graphical programming environment for music and media applications, allows its users to
schedule events with millisecond accuracy, create complex mappings for incoming data, and run a
large number of operations in parallel. In essence, it is a graphic tool to create programs by wiring
together objects. MSP extends Max's capabilities by incorporating audio objects that are connected
to create audio patches where signals flow from one object to the next - not unlike the
fundamental concept of the modular synthesizer.
Improvements to Max 4 focus on enhancements to the editing interface of the patcher window and
the addition of new capabilities for creating great-looking interfaces. These features include
Inspectors, Max user interfaces for editing details about user interfaces; floating point scheduling
precise to two samples; scripting commands that can create, connect, move, hide, and delete
objects in a patcher and an Extras menu for storing and quick access to useful tools. Other
improvements include color-coded patch cords and contextual menus as well as numerous new
objects.
MSP 2.0 adds support for sample-accurate scheduling, improved MIDI timing, and over 40 new signal
processing and user interface objects. The new release also enhances MSP's polyphony
management, makes spectral processing applications easier to build, adds audio-rate sequencing
control, and optimizes signal processing objects for use with the G4 Velocity Engine (Altivec).
There are also numerous inprovements to audio I/O, including support for all major 8- to 32-bit
audio file formats, 512 I/O channels, and inter-application audio connections using Propellerheads'
ReWire, Steinberg's VST, and Digidesign's DirectConnect.
"This release, the first in over five years, brings Max into the new century. It's a major update, but
our customers will still feel at home; more precisely, as if someone moved a lot of nice new
furniture into their houses. Together, Max and MSP are far more than an obscure programming
environment - we are constantly amazed at the variety of our customers and their innovative use
of our products," said David Zicarelli, Cycling '74 President.
Max4/MSP 2 is available now from Cycling '74 for $495; current users of Max and MSP may
purchase upgrades. Demo versions, purchases and upgrades are available online. For more information, visit their web site at www.cycling74.com. |
