SOUND SYNTHESIS WITH MAX 8 TRAINING

DESCRIPTION

You are already familiar with Max, you would like to find out more about the theory and practice behind more than 12 different types of sound synthesis, you are interested in implementing your own sound synthesis engines to create sound installations, sound design tools or simply sounds, then this course is for you. With over 20 years of experience in the Max environment and a highly theoretical and technical approach to artistic creation, we’ll give you a first-hand experience of sound synthesis in its purest form.

After an overview of the history of synthesis, as well as a few necessary elements and concepts such as the temporal/frequential approaches, analog/digital conversion and polyphony, you’ll delve with us into the different types of sound synthesis.

From analog to digital synthesis, through the well-known additive/subtractive synthesis, frequency and amplitude modulation, sampling and concatenative synthesis, as well as granular and pulsar syntheses, wavetable synthesis, including vector synthesis, but also cross synthesis, phase distortion and signal distortion (waveshaping), you’ll learn how to use all the ready-to-use Max objects and patches to build your own Max-based synthesis systems and then, why not, export them with RNBO, as VSTs, as Max objects or on Raspberry Pi.

It’s a real journey, with a « history / theory / practice » approach for each module of knowledge covered.

Also, you’ll discover practical cases of using data for sonification purposes, whether it comes from sensors or real-time data from the Internet. This will enable you to explore the fantastic possibility of creating your own sound synthesis engine/system, controllable by any digital value. You’ll be one step closer to sonifying the movements of a dancer, the temperature of a room or even triggering sounds using messages from social networks, for example.

And if you’re not familiar with Max, this course can be taught in addition to our Max-specific course . This combination is the ideal way not only to discover and become virtually autonomous with Max, but also to specialize in sound synthesis with this extraordinary real-time and interactive programming environment.

PREREQUISITES

This course requires a certain knowledge of the Max language, in particular :

• the distinction between messages and signals (Max and MSP)
• data types (float, int, symbol, list and bang)
• the notion of messages priority (right/left, hot/cold entries)
• the concept of list
• graphical interface objects (number, button, toggle, slider, dial, etc.)
• the concepts of sub-patching & abstraction (including the bpatcher object)

The following knowledge of MSP will also be used :

• digital sound in Max (analog/digital conversion, signals, Audio Status window, etc.)
• notions of signal generation and processing (filtering, delay, effects, etc.)
• the concept of mc (multichannel) objects

In concrete terms, a general knowledge of the following objects is expected:

• adc~, dac~
• snapshot~ (conversion of signals into numbers) and sig~ (conversion of numbers into signals)
• Signal generators: cycle~, rect~, saw~, phasor~, …
• Signal operations: +~, -~, *~, /~, …
• Signal routing: selector~, gate~, …
• Graphical interface: scope~, plot~, gain~, live.gain~, meter~, …
• Reading/writing audio samples: buffer~, wave~, waveform~, groove~, play~, sfplay~, info~, …

To get the most out of the “Sound synthesis with Max” course, you need a general knowledge of most of the elements mentioned above.

If this is not the case, a training program combining our course on the Max 8 environment and this in-depth study of sound synthesis is perfectly feasible and even recommended!

TERMS & HOW TO

Our Ableton Live trainings can be done as One-To-One and Group modes.

You can choose Remote or Face-to-Face Training.

We can propose you the best flexibility by providing all possible combinations: you can start remotely, and come here to end your training, or, we could design a full week for your group, Face-to-Face here in France and get for each one of you some individual one-to-one 3 hours remotely after that…

DURATION

All courses durations can be modulated, but we used to propose you these 3 packages :

• TOTAL (5 days)
• ACCELERATED (3 days)
• REMOTE CAPSULES (3 hours slots)

During our first discussion, we decide together which mode fits your needs.

TOTAL mode gives you the solid/full/total autonomy with Ableton Live.
ACCELERATED MODE provides you everything you need to use Ableton Live without too much time constraint.
REMOTE CAPSULES is the most flexible mode which provides the best way to learn all along weeks and month, slower.

Depending on your needs, we can provide longer Ableton Live training sessions.

FUNDINGS

If you are working for a company in France, for a french institution, you can probably get your Ableton Live training funded.

Contact us for this to get more specific informations.

OVERALL OBJECTIVES

PROGRAM

• Introduction and history of sound synthesis
• Analog and digital sound
• Temporal and frequency approaches to sound
• Synthesis components (generators, envelopes, filters)
• Concepts of monophony, polyphony and paraphony
• Fundamentals of Max 8
• Additive synthesis
• Subtractive synthesis
• Frequency and amplitude modulation synthesis
• Controlling synthesis with data and sensors (sonification)
• Sampling & sample playback
• Concatenative synthesis
• Granular & pulsar syntheses
• Wavetable synthesis (wavetable, dds, vector)
• Cross Synthesis
• Phase distortion synthesis
• Waveshaping
• Physical modeling synthesis
• Speech synthesis (formant)
• Modular approach : BEAP & VCV Rack