New to modular: is Max For Live for me?

[Neon Breath]

Hi guys,

Although I have years of experience in standard synthesis instruments (FM, subtractive, additive, granular, etc) I'm totally new to modular synthesis and I am ready to dive into this world to open up my creativity and ideas. I need your inputs here, I'm a bit lost and undecided which way to go. At the moment from the research I did, I'm looking and interested into either Max For Live, Tassman or Reaktor. Max For Live is very tempting of course because I exclusively work in Ableton Live, so having a modular workstation optimized and fully integrated in Live is a big plus. But I am not sure if it is for me though, from what I saw it seems pretty complex and tedious to use for a total neophyte like me.

-So, I have zero knowledge in modular workstations/environment. First time for me. I'm also not a programmer and I have no knowledge in programming. So in term of complexity and learning curve, which one of these would suit me best? Which one is the easiest one to learn? I'm not afraid to learn and read tutorials and documentation, but I don't wanna be stuck into documentation for months and months and get nothing out of the box... That would be quite frustrating, I wanna have fun exploring this new world!

-Also, I'll be focusing my work on effects and instruments only, for experimental and ambient music. So I'm looking for bullding very unique and strange sounds & effect units, nothing else.

-for Ableton Live, Mac. So I need a modular workstation usable as a VST instrument that I can use in Live.

What do you guys think? Do you think M4L is really for me? Or any other suggestions or ideas?

Thanks for your time, much appreciated!

[Neon Breath]

Thanks ShelLuser for your great and useful input! I was looking for an answer oriented toward my needs and experience. I'll keep reading around and check those links you posted , but yeah Reaktor seems indeed more oriented for me I think.

Cheers, much appreciated!

[Clearscreen]

Also check out Usine, I found it much easier to get stuff done in than bidule or reaktor as a "beginner"...

[Neon Breath]

Would love to check for Usine, but it's PC only

[benoit-1842]

Me, I was curious about involving a programming environment and my dj/composition work. Max for live is for me a true revelation... You can build excellent instruments, effects and the multimedia capacity is awesome. Once you understand the concept of the beast : the sky is the limit..... It's not super difficult to work with max for live it's sure there's a learning curve but when you understand it wow ! Ableton Live becomes 100 times more profitable and complex (in a good way) !!!! If you listen to some youtube tutorial, read forums etc. It get you maybe a month to be productive...(For me and I was a total newbie).


Thanx Ben

[Khazul]

M4L might let you construct a modular, but it isnt even close to a modular. In time, with alot of patience and tearing your hair out etc investing in learning M4L understanding its quirks and further understanding the Live specific quirks, you may do wonder with it.

But if you aim is some kind of low level modular synthesis, perhaps somethign like reactor is way way more approapriate for you needs, but even thats hard work as well.

M4L is a graphical programming environment with extension to facilitate audio midi and video development integrated into Live.

its quite a VPU hiog too until you figure out how to optimise things (where possible). It tends to yield very very little reward for several weaks (depending upon how much time per day you can invest) but eventually yes it kind of pays off.


BTW - talking of modular synths, am I the only one who really wishes Nord would turn their G2 modular demo into a fully blown VST/AU plugin? I would by the damn thing tomorrow (assuming price resonable) if they did. As thing synth to look at if you want to experiment a bit is the ACE synth (http://www.acesynth.com/). Its also a complete CPU hog - you need a very powerful modern machine to run it usefully alongside other plugins, but it sounds great (excellent for its price), fun to program, and definately rates as interesting

[Neon Breath]

Interesting stuff. Again, thanks all for the help!