bhc303 wrote:
But for the little extra $ up front for max, will it bring more to the table? then saying that is the M4L interface in live a little more easier to use???
In terms of creating patches, it is pretty much the same interface, so they are both basically the same in terms of use. But M4L does have several pre-made patches in Live that you can just drop in without ever having to edit a patch - and lots of people out there create and post their patches for all to use. Guess in a sense that does make M4L a little easier for someone who has never used it before. I do not think at this point that standalone Max will bring anything new to the table for you to be honest - as Luddy said, you can edit patches fine without owning standalone Max. You also do not need standalone Max to implement the midi limitation solution I have been rabbiting on about!
bhc303 wrote:
The midi limitations you talk about in M4L kinda like a comparing it to a modular system with limited CV routing?
Not really. It's about being able to take a midi message anywhere in your set and have it do something somewhere else in that set. Live/M4L will only allow you to send or receive on one midi channel on one port per track - thus the need for an alternate midi routing solution to relay midi data between tracks.
bhc303 wrote:
Do you really notice this lack of midi problem? I would imagine you are trying to drive various ensembles from other devices yeah?
I do, but then again I am relatively old school! When I first decided to try Live out with M4L and noticed this limitation, I stopped using it and went back to Logic with standalone Max until I found the solution. While I of course work in the audio realm too, I like the flexibility of being able to mess with what is triggering synths rather than only effecting the result. For instance, I may want to take the midi triggering a drum track and have that automate changes to an effect on another track or even several other tracks. If one works generally in the audio domain (I think a lot of people do now these days), this would probably not be much of an issue at all. It's all about what your setup is, how you write music etc etc.
By the way, I wasn't really advocating buying Max at any stage as I don't think you need it - just pointing out some limitations in the Live/M4L setup. Your approach is a good one - I suggest going through the tutorials in Max and opening some pre-made M4L patches in Live and seeing if you can reverse engineer them - I found that a good way to get to grips with it.
Best of luck!
