Generative Techniques in Max/MSP

Making infinite musical possibilities with ease.

13th December, 2024

“Generative Music” was first coined by artist Brain Eno in 1996 [0]. Generatively creating music is a concept of producing unique and dynamic audio that is ever-changing and evolving. It involves dictating rules for a program or algorithm to follow, these rules could be applied to any parameter, setting, or input desired.

"…it starts to create music that you've never heard before. This is an important point I think. If you move away from the idea of the composer as someone who creates a complete image and then steps back from it, there's a different way of composing. It's putting in motion something and letting it make the thing for you."

Brian Eno (June 8, 1996) [0]

Max/MSP is a perfect canvas for exploring the possibilities of generative music and audio. Recently I created an audio, visual installation in Max/MSP called “Algorithmic Synthesis” for the capstone project of my Bachelor. This experience featured a range of generative techniques that I will now detail.

Contents

Controlling Randomness

LFOs

Pitch

Buffers

References

[0] Eno, B. (1996, June 8). Generative Music. In Motion Magazine.

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