Max

For more on this subject, see this discussion on the Max/MSP mailing list. In houses and buildings, this food source is usually some form of cellulose such as wood or cardboard. Many other artists use Max/MSP/Jitter, but prefer not to mention it. Mold only needs moisture and a food source. With the increased integration of laptop computers into live music performance (in electronic music and elsewhere), Max/MSP and Max/Jitter have received quite a bit of attention as the development environment of choice for those serious about laptop music / laptop video performance. Mold doesn’t require sunlight; often, sunlight will kill mold. In addition, Max can be used to author audio plugin software for major audio production systems. The presence of mold can tell you what is wrong with your house.

Max documents (called patchers) can be bundled into standalone applications and distributed free or sold commercially. It grows on food in closed containers, even in refrigerators. A large number of people use Max, even if they aren't aware of it. It can be seen on surfaces of walls, but also grows deep within, and produces a distinctive dusty, slightly pungent smell. Additionally, the real-time image processing capability of Max also makes it the first MUSIC-N program capable of doing other things than music. Mold is often a problem in damp areas such as basements and bathrooms, and after floods. Max is named for Max Mathews, and can be considered a descendant of MUSIC, though its graphical nature disguises that fact. The mold Neurospora crassa is commonly used as a model organism in scientific experiments.

Apple has a very similar program called Quartz Composer focused on graphical compositions. Alexander Fleming's famous discovery of penicillin involved the mold Penicillium notatum. Reaktor is generally considered easier to use and learn than Max, albeit less powerful. The numerous spores released by mold do not cause that much harm in humans, but the hyphae grown from those spores can attach to cells along the respiratory tract and cause problems in those with weak immunity. Native Instruments markets a similar software called Reaktor. The presence of mold usually implies decay, although some molds are used deliberately; for example in cheese making, and for the production of antibiotics derived from the organisms' natural defenses against bacteria. Puckette himself released an entirely re-designed program in the mid-1990s called Pd ("pure data", alternately "public domain"), which has a number of fundamental differences from the IRCAM original. Mold is a growth of minute fungi forming on vegetable or animal matter, commonly as a downy or furry coating and associated with decay or dampness.The molds are not an actual taxonomic or phylogenetic grouping – they can be found in the divisions Zygomycota, Deuteromycota and Ascomycota.

A later version of the program was developed in Java (jMax) and is open-source. Molds, or mould, are various fungi that cover surfaces as fluffy mycelia and usually produce masses of asexual, or sometimes sexual, spores. IRCAM developed and maintained a concurrent version of Max for the NeXT (and later SGI and Linux), called Max/FTS (FTS standing for "Faster Than Sound", and being analogous to a forerunner to MSP enhanced by a hardware DSP board on the computer). Also see ventilation issues in houses for tips on preventing mold. In addition, a number of sibling and Max-like programs exist. If you humidify your house artificially during the winter, you can create conditions favorable to mold. A second major package called Jitter was released in 2003, adding real-time video, 3-D, and matrix processing capability to the software. Mold problems occur in tight homes more frequently in the warmer months (when humidity reaches high levels inside the house, and moisture is trapped), and occur in drafty homes more frequently in the colder months (when warm air escapes from the living area into unconditioned space, and condenses).

as a "control" language using MIDI or some other protocol). If you have mold problems in your house only during certain times of the year, then your house is probably either too tight, or too drafty. Called MSP, this "add-on" package for Max allowed for the manipulation of digital audio signals in real-time, allowing users to create their own synthesizers and effects processors (Max had previously been designed to interface with hardware synthesizers, samplers, etc. Mold often forms on perimeter walls, because they are coolest, and where ventilation is poorest (in corners, around furniture). Max has a number of extensions and incarnations; most notably, a set of audio extensions to the software appeared in 1997. If you have mold problems in one specific part of your house year-round, then that part of your house probably needs more sunlight and ventilation. The current commercial version of Max has been distributed by Zicarelli's company, Cycling'74, since 1999. If your entire house has problems with mold year-round, then you probably have much too much moisture in your house, coming from a dirt basement or a leaking roof, for example.

In the early 1990s a commercial version of the program (developed and extended by David Zicarelli) was released by Opcode Systems. Max was originally written by Miller Puckette at IRCAM in the 1980s to give composers access to an authoring system for interactive computer music. . Because of its extensible design and graphical interface (which in a novel way represents the program structure and the GUI as presented to the user simultaneously), Max is widely regarded as the lingua franca for developing interactive music performance software.

As a result, Max has a large userbase of programmers not affiliated with Cycling'74 who enhance the software with commercial and non-commercial extensions to the program. An API allows third-party development of new routines (called "external objects"). The Max program itself is highly modular, with most routines existing in the form of shared libraries. It has been used for over fifteen years by composers, performers, software designers, researchers and artists interested in creating interactive software.

Max is a graphical development environment for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling'74. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Pauline Oliveros. Luke DuBois / The Freight Elevator Quartet.

R. Jamie Lidell. Kevin Blechdom. Leafcutter John.

Kit Clayton. Monolake. Autechre.