Max 5 Programming Language Update (review)

Cycling ’74’s release of Max 5 is a significant update to the company’s flagship product. In brief, Max is a visual or object-oriented programming language. The primary function of Max is to allow the design of multimedia applications by giving the artist and programmer the ability to handle different elements of time, control, and interactivity. Max 5 runs on both Macintosh and Windows operating systems. For Macintosh systems, Max 5 requires a PPC or Intel machine running Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and 1 GB RAM. For Windows, Max 5 requires a Windows XP or Vista machine, and 1 GB RAM.

Figure 1.

New Patcher Interface for Max 5.

Because Max has been around for quite some time now, and its reputation is solidly embedded in the computer music community, I won’t go into detail about all of Max’s functionality. Instead, I will highlight only the major changes that are available, or not available, in this update.

With Max 5, Cycling ’74 completely redesigned the base of the application so as to be completely platform-independent, and the multiprocessing kernel has been streamlined. Many of the new features are focused on lessening the learning curve. Some of the most significant new features include:

Integrated Documentation

A Clue Window is provided to call up reference information for, among other things, objects, menu items, attributes, and user interface features. It is a floating window that displays documentation for the item below the mouse.

Interactive Tutorials

The once PDF only tutorials are now accessible from directly within Max, through the Help menu.

New Patcher Interface

The Object Pallet is now a transparent, floating, resize-able, “pop-up” window (see Figure 1). Multiple undo’s are available. You can now “zoom” in and out of a patch. An unlimited number of open views of the same patch are now possible. Each graphical element of the new user interface has a specific look that correlates to its function. New Patcher Keyboard commands and Auto-Completion features are now available.

Object Inspector

This is a window that is based on an attribute model. The property of any object that is an attribute can be monitored or changed in the Inspector window.

The File Browser

This is a window that manages patches, media files, and examples. It uses a database, and you can create database queries to call up specific files. There is a preview pane at the bottom of the window that allows you to find any file and navigate to the relevant resources. You also have the ability to conveniently drag and drop files from the browser directly into your patch. Presentation Mode. This new mode allows the user to design patches with user interface objects. You can choose your interface modules and arrange them in an optimal layout, without disturbing your patching logic.

Time Objects

Most Max objects that deal with time have been rewritten so you can now use them with metrical time values (see Figure 2). This allows you to use, for example, a Bang object to output every eighth note. You can still use the standard milliseconds if you so desire. The new Transport object provides a master clock to control these objects.

Object Palette

The Object Palette now has resizable icons and automatically creates a visual catalog of any user interface object prototypes that you create.

Debugging Features

A new Debug window has been designed to show the execution stack as you step through a patch. Signal and Matrix probes display matrix and audio data as the mouse hovers over the patch cord (see Figure 3). With Monitor Watch-Points, you can now capture and display data that flows through the patch cords. Error messages are object specific. When you click on an error message in the Max Window, the object that generated the error is highlighted.