Max/MSP is a visual programming environment for music, audio, and new media. The Max section is the oldest, MSP is an additional library that handles audio signals, and Jitter is the most recent library that handles video, animation, and other types of matrix data.

Download
To start, download Max/MSP from here (choose either the current Mac version or the current Windows version):

Authorize
Max will run as a fully functional demo for 30 days. To keep working after that, it needs to be authorized. If you are using a CNMAT copy of Max, you need to check out an iLok key.

more information at:

File Paths
Working with Max you will have a large number of extra files: sound files, patches you make, patches and objects you download, &c. When you run Max, it does not search your entire hard drive for these files (which is a good thing). Max only looks where you tell it. The official documentation can be found on page 79 of "Max46Topics.pdf" and page 29 of "Max46Fundamentals.pdf." If you didn't download the Max documentation, see the downloads link above.

To make life simple, it is a good idea to keep all of the things you want Max to find in a folder called "enabled" and all of your other Max work in folder called "disabled". I have created a folder called "MaxMSP" in my user folder, and put the enabled and disabled folders inside it.

[inline-center:searchpath1.png=Michael's User Folder width:2048]

In Max, go the Options menu and select file preferences. Click on one of the "Choose" buttons next to an empty slot. In the next dialog box, select the "Enabled" folder you just created. Its path should appear in the slot, like: Berg:/Users/mzed/MaxMSP/enabled/ Max scans these search paths only on start up, so to make this change effective you should restart Max. Now, it should be able to find everything in the enabled folder. This will be the place where you put all of your active patches and third party objects.

NB: Don't name your folders "Max/MSP" or anything with a "/". The "/" has special meaning in the name of a file path, and will confuse your computer. (Ideally, the operating system wouldn't let you use / in a name, but that's a different problem.)

CNMAT Dowloads
CNMAT has tremendous amount of Max material to download. Navigate to the [cnmat:downloads|cnmat downloads page], and click on the "everything" link that is appropriate to your computer. You will have downloaded a folder called something like "CNMAT-Everything-OSX-MachO." Put that whole folder in your enabled folder.

Third Party Downloads
CNMAT has a list of required and recommended third party objects [cnmat:node/2941|here]. Any of these you want to use should also be in your downloads folder. When you start getting into "recommended" objects, or further afield, be careful of having two things in your search path with the same name. It is somewhat unpredictable which object Max will load in that case, which could seriously effect the function of your patch.

Also, CNMAT Users have access to some IRCAM Max externals and patches. Contact [cnmat:node/11630|Jeff Lubow] for more details.

Attachments
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