originated in 1984 at Ircam in Paris. Miller Puckette invented the Max programming environment to send signals, particularly MIDI, out to external hardware (samples, keyboards, etc). Instead of having analog control you would use the computer as the brain for triggering different sounds. It was just about sending messages out of the computer to dedicated hardware to create sound. About 10 years later they added a new language component called MSP (musical synthesis processing). This allowed you to program your own internal synthesizers (because it was much faster). A few years ago they added Jitter. This does what MSP did for audio, to video. Jitter can play video and process in real time.
processing is a procedurally organized program. Max is a data flow program.
black lines at the top and bottom of objets are called inlet and outlet. this is how you connect objects and control data flow.
apple E moves you between editing mode and playing mode.
the n key starts a new generic object.
on object object is a generic place holder in which you type in what type of object you want it to be.
bang: sending a message through the system
loop 1 is true, loop 0 is false.
my first patch:
objects that end in ~ are creating audio
* means multiplication. signal range is 0 - 1, 1 being the loudest.