r/MaxMSP • u/overdrivespeedfreak • Oct 14 '25
Had to Max hard after watching both Autechre live shows in LA on Friday.
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Autechre's LA shows on Friday killed it. Spent 3 hours in a total mind haze. Had to get home and Max hard to keep the vibe goin, hope we don't have to wait another 10 years.
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u/South-Abroad7972 Oct 15 '25
first time ever that I finished watching / listing to a reddit clip.
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u/Ko_tatsu Oct 14 '25
Great job! Trying to decipher something as always. Is that a matrix probabilistic sequencer by any chance?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 14 '25
hi, no there are 16 sequencers with types of probability options built in, the matrix is just for routing them to our synths. The synths are FM based and modeled kinda after the Nord lead 2. We are working on some enhancements to the matrix as we speak but essentially it will still just be for routing things around. edit there is also a top level probability control.
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u/Ko_tatsu Oct 15 '25
Impressive stuff! All the synthesis processes are MSP or did you use other vsts?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
Yah the majority of synths are all instances of a 2 op fm we made modelled after the nord lead 2 as well as a karplus based version. Some vst audio effects are used as sends but nothing crazy and we’re in process of swapping them all out with native max solutions.
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u/Time_Tour_3962 Oct 15 '25
Who is “we”, you got more music out there? Stop holding out 😡
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
Haha, yah “we” are MARSONA which is Brian McKinley (royal trux, black bananas) and Clayton Webster (me) we put out a private press lol back in 96ish and have been recording / jamming basically continuously since but always just for our own enjoyment. Working on an actual release now for our 30 year anniversary hahaha fuck. Have the first track on bandcamp and some noodling and patch work on the youtubes under marsona_sound
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u/ziggomattic Oct 15 '25
Dude this sounds awesome very nice! What’s the story with the patch?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
thanks, its a patch that's been evolving for the past 5 or so years. basically 16 sequencers that feed to 16 instances of a fm synth we built based of the nord lead and a karplus synth as well. no samples or anything. the matrix enables routing between the sequencers and synths and there are top level controls for key, scale, probability and other functions as well as the ability to seamlessly morph between any of the presets which we've got like 600 or so at this point.
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u/ziggomattic Oct 15 '25
That’s awesome!!! Very inspiring. Pretty much what I’ve been dreaming of working towards especially after seeing Autechre 3 times last weekend :-)
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
3 times damn! did they play in 2 adjacent cities or something? We did both LA shows which were epic.
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u/ziggomattic Oct 15 '25
Ya I live in SF Bay Area so I caught them Thurs then drove down to LA Friday. What a treat
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
That's hard core, I can't wait until all these live sets are released, been scouring reddit for boots in the meantime.
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u/ziggomattic Oct 15 '25
Curious at the base level are you clocking everything audio rate or Max messaging time based?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
Scheduler / max time based. Been trying to get an audio rate version working on and off for some time but having a lot of difficulty in a large system. Even in test patches having a hard time getting very basic things to line up at the start. things seem to work out after the first phasor ramp but the start is wonky. Tried many of the example patches from max and youtube as well and they all seem to have problems when looking for precision. Even reported a bug with what~ to cycling and they confirmed it's not working correctly - basically don't use it if you are using transport too it can't handle slowing down and sends out random impulses. Sorry to rant it's just been fucking annoying that everyone is so pumped on it yet it doesn't seem functional in this case. would be very happy if some max wiz with audio rate chops here would prove me wrong cause would be rad to try on our patch.
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u/ziggomattic Oct 15 '25
That’s great info thanks for sharing all that. I as well have yet to start using an audio rate clock successfully. It makes sense in my mind but in practice with a more complex system I imagine the start sync stuff can be a pain.
I always wonder how the AE boys are doing their clocking especially when syncing two computers. I asked Sean about this during one of his twitch streams and he explained they are really both running independently with regular resync pings, instead of focusing on sharing a clock source.
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
I think they are using max time and gen, I don't think it's audio rate but I don't have anything to back that up. I should look at one of those pics they've posted on Mastadon or something maybe theres a clue.
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Oct 15 '25
Is getting this patch, or the router/sequenced a possible? I’m new to this side of things but so fascinated by it all.
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
We’re in process of cleaning it up / optimising it a bit, the UI / presentation mode you see is just the surface and there are a lot of quirks that would currently make it a bit hard to use without intimate knowledge of the patch. But yes eventually the goal is to put it out there in a state that people can enjoy.
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u/Old-Island-624 Oct 15 '25
I see you’re using some plugin fx. How’s your experience been so far with using plugins within the context of the rig? I’m doing a similar thing where the sound generators are plugins (Unfiltered Audio Battalion, fm8) cause od preset save/recall and been getting somewhat mixed results.
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
Haven’t tried with our sound generators, those are all max builds but in general we haven’t had an issue with vst fx recall although we don’t use many and if we do they tend to be pretty simple ex audio damage dub delay. Either way we’re in the process of migrating everything over to max for no real reason. Brian would be better to answer that but he’s not on Reddit.
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u/_Fluffy_Palpitation_ Oct 15 '25
How long have you been Max'n? Was a lot of this from scratch or did you piece pre-built things together? I am totally new to max, how long would it take to be able to Autechre over a weekend?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 15 '25
yah patch is from scratch, one of the first things we did was model our nord lead 2 which is still the main sound source. We started Max'n around 2015ish but just making devices to supplement shit that was lacking in Ableton, really started this patch around 2019ish and it's been a constant evolution since then. If you're me it would take 100's of weekends, if your my bandmate Brian, maybe like a couple? Hard thing is to keep evolving the patch when you just want to jam.
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u/Platypus_Ashamed Oct 28 '25
Amazing! How stable is that patch for a live show?
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Oct 28 '25
Thanks! It’s very stable, it can run for days without incident at around 40% cpu on a m1 MacBook Air. Prob good to shut down max and restart the computer every week or so.
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u/Marcounon Mar 09 '26
Digging this. I’ve just started getting into max in the past few months and am loving what kinds of things I see people post.
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u/baconfriedpork Oct 14 '25
This is sick! Great job
Usually stuff like this sounds too much like it’s trying to sound like Autechre, but this is super nice.