compusition

Follow up to my previous post on sequencer design. After a lot of back and forth I think I've finally pinned down what I want to do with this project. The key to making this system interesting is to make it "self sequencing". I already have patterns that consist of many tracks of sequenced rhythms, notes, velocities, and durations. That's what every commercial sequencer does so it's not too exciting. So I added a hierarchical meta-sequencer that sequences the sequencer. It's only 2-levels deep (so far), but that seems plenty complex for the time being.

I guess my javascript software section is kind of lacking. I just posted a silly little animation script I did many years ago, revolving boxes.

I made some good progress on my Ruby object for Max/MSP recently. Performance has improved significantly and it's now very convenient to write your Ruby scripts in an external editor.

I'll probably release these updates by the end of the month. I don't think anyone's really using my ruby object yet so I'm not going out of my way to release updates quickly. But If you are using the object, drop me a line and I can give you the latest & greatest version.

With a nod towards Ableton Live's "scenes" feature, I'm reworking my sequencer application to be hierarchical. Each track will have a set of presets (aka scenes). Then there is a higher "master" level preset that manages the set of track presets.

My goal was to release another song in February and I just barely made it happen. Good thing this is a leap year! I call this one "Revival of the Ancients" and you can listen to it here.

This is the first piece I composed with my own software. I used my SQ16 application, which is part of my ajm objects library for Max/MSP.

I posted two more Max/MSP patches: "Multislider Envelope" and "Cellblock Editor". These are two techniques I've found useful when building user interfaces in Max.

ajm objects

Sequencing, scripting, and more for Max/MSP.

Version 0.7 (beta) is now available for download. This is my first significant release of Max/MSP software.

Read more and download ajm objects over at my Max/MSP software page.

This article describes how to setup Eclipse to develop Java+Ruby applications using JRuby, a Java wrapper for Ruby that can be embedded anywhere Java runs (which is just about everywhere!). I am use this setup to develop the MaxObject "ruby" for running Ruby inside of Max/MSP.

Apparently I am in tutorial writing mode these days. I've been doing a lot of Java-based Max/MSP development using Eclipse. It's pretty straightforward getting Eclipse setup to work on Max/MSP externals if you know what you are doing. Otherwise it might be pretty confusing. So I wrote up a detailed step-by-step guide for people new to Eclipse and Max/MSP Java external development.

I upgraded to Leopard (OS X 10.5) this weekend. It was a good chance to do some spring cleaning so I backed up the important stuff and formatted my hard drive. But I forgot to backup my Logic templates and had to recreate them. I guess I am still a Logic newbie because I had to struggle with setting up multitrack MIDI recording the way I wanted. So this time I took some notes. It explains how to setup Logic Pro 8 for multitrack MIDI and control Logic's software instruments from another application like Max/MSP.