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Make Max Make Music with Markov Chains

Matthew Aidekman

Make Max make music for you! Make Max make music like you! Make Max make music without you! Do the beginnings of your performances always start with you predictably building layers? Get the party kicking *immediately* with Markov chains! Are you sick of making music with static loops that never ever ever ever ever change? Not with Markov chains. Do you tweak one thing at a time while everything else just sits there repeating over and over and over and over? Never again! Maybe you just want a friend to jam with when there’s no one around. This class will teach you to make your Max patch improvise on it’s own! You’ll walk out with ideas and strategies for making melodies, chords progressions and especially drum parts write themselves and only repeat when you want them to!

Making Max Make Music with Markov Chains

Matthew Aidekman
Sun, Jan 20, noon to 6pm
Cost: $125 (student/member), $150 (regular)

Pay with PayPal or Credit Card on our Payment Page here

Location:
Harvestworks – www.harvestworks.org
596 Broadway, #602 | New York, NY 10012 | Phone: 212-431-1130
Subway: F/M/D/B Broadway/Lafayette, R Prince, 6 Bleeker

markovMax/MSP is the perfect place to go for composing algorithmic music. This class will get students knee deep in this subject by starting with a simple patch that contains just six max objects called a Markov chain. This Markov chain will act as the core for every program in the course. From there students will be shown numerous strategies for how to use this patch to generate everything from song structures to rhythms to bass lines. Students will also learn to teach this tiny program how to improvise. From here the class will discuss a few ways to make the output of our Markov chains a little bit more human and musical. Finally we’ll talk about creating drum kit parts. Everything students learn can be easily dropped into Max for Live to instantly bring a sparkle to live performances. This class assumes students have a basic knowledge of Max programming.

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Past workshop

Jan 20 · 12:00pm · 6:00pm

Harvestworks Studio

596 Broadway #602, New York, NY 10012

Matthew Aidekman

Matthew Aidekman has been a sound engineer since sixth grade. At the age of seventeen he opened Estate Recording where he spent nearly ten years recording acts of all different genres while composing unique and strange songs on the side. In 2003 he began working in Max/MSP focusing his attention on algorithmic music, novel synthesis techniques and user interface design. Matt has spent a great deal of time working on the relationship of user interfaces to Markov chain based algorithms for making music. He’s currently working a degree in physical modeling synthesis and a record which focuses on sounds that evoke images of soil, root systems, and the underground in general.