Ableton Forum

I took a punt at this t'other day, just to give me something to do at work (when I'm not actually working) and also as a bit of a grounding for using Max (anything that warrants buying M4L next year is good, too). It's surprisingly easy to get on with, even for a complete programming/audio buidling n00b such as myself.

Anyone else 'into' it? Using it for anything useful? It certainly ain't bad considering that it's completely free and continually updated/built upon.

That was all really...

(great tutorial book online - http://www.pd-tutorial.com/)

took a max/pd course and I can say that its pretty much the antithesis of how I want to make music.

did selfteach me some pd during a summer when I had too much time. I did a nice mathematical-fractal-arpeggiator that spit out midi and routed that into live.

but nothing really fancy.

this one is "composed" with that pd-patch I made:
Zebras by numbers.mp3

Did two projects in Pd and still have to say I don't really like it. While it is great for some purposes (like a huge modular synth), it suffers from the inevitable chaos you will create. Chaos can be creative in some cases, but can be time-consuming or even project-killing.
Of course you can create sub patches and tidy things up, but still..... maybe it's just not my approach.

Using Pd to get into Max for the upcoming M4L is a great idea, I'd suggest that to everybody who isn't already into Max.

I've made some MIDI processing/randomizing patches in PD..... it was fun, but I'm taking a break from algorithmic stuff atm... need to spend some time actually making music!

I guess that will change when M4L appears....

I've used it for simple controller mapping - like after touch to mod wheel for example. And also for more complex controller mapping like the equivalent of chain select and macro controls before Live had racks. But I have to admit these things have fallen out of use lately.

I've read somewhere that there is a degree of compatibility between Max and PD. Maybe someone can reverse engineer the APIs used by Max for Live and create a PD for Live.

there are many things that are possible in pd / maxmsp which arent possible in any DAW. in my opinion anyone who's interested in experimental music or really serious about making electronic music could benefit from some time with pd.

Hi,

i used a lot pure data ( it's a very fun place to experiment some idea ) but very difficult to integrate it in my musical process (only by sample generated by pd in Live )

it is going better and better by the way, the futur version seems to be more user friendly ;o)

a lot of my experimentation with this soft can be downloaded here (sound mangler, autechre-like fm sequence etc ....)
http://www.humankoala.com/PureData/HK_PD.zip

HK

Some great responses, guys. Sounds like Pd is a far-underated tool.

I tell you what; I could have saved SO much money (like, hundreds) if I'd discovered Pd four years ago! No failed Reaktor experiements... no Bidule money wasted (although I am gradually getting more into Bidule).

Going to keep plugging away at it; managed to generate a varied-pitch oscilator and some math functions last night! Woohoo! Haha.

@HK - Will check out that stuff later, chap. Sounds interesting.

logic_user99 wrote:Some great responses, guys. Sounds like Pd is a far-underated tool.

I tell you what; I could have saved SO much money (like, hundreds) if I'd discovered Pd four years ago! No failed Reaktor experiements... no Bidule money wasted (although I am gradually getting more into Bidule).

yeah, free also means no marketing - and some not very smooth gui stuff.. but a very powerful tool.

I use PD with Live a fair bit these days. http://vimeo.com/12679393

Ricky

This lets you integrate pd patches into Live.

I used Pd after having had a decent grouding in Max and a decent bit of traditional programming experience and to be honest I found it pretty bewildering when the differences between it and Max come up, for example the way it handles audio samples etc. is much more low-level, you need to think about positions within the array and so on.

If I had the time I'd get more into it, same way as I feel about Reaktor, or even Max if I was to pick it up again. I'm sure I could do some great things with it given the time but at the moment I'm more focused on actually making tracks and the more traditional tools are more gratifying in that respect, I don't see much point in building my own crazy shit when I've not even mastered my synth and drum machine.

That Pd VST looks worth a look...

im still a fan of PD, but since i got M4L i can say its well worth the cash to have such a platform (a little smoother than PD) so nicely integrated into Live. i would say if you're getting really into PD, get M4L eventually.