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IRCAM's jMax released under GPL

Posted by Hemos on from the fun-with-sound dept.

Computermusician writes "IRCAM announces the distribution of jMax, its software environment for music performance and real time digital audio processing, as free software under the GNU General Public License. Max, the grandfather of jMax, has been in use at IRCAM and other places (Aphex Twin) since the 80s. Check out more details " Once again, good stuff that will help Linux in the multimedia market.

4 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. digital recording by McKing · · Score: 3

    I'm compiling this right now but I wanted to ask a question while I wait.

    I would like to know how close the linux community is to something like Cakewalk Pro or Sound Forge for digital recording. I could care less about MIDI, I just want to set up a multitrack recording system on a linux box instead of buying the software mentioned above and NT. I am interested in this for personal as well as professional (programmer, live sound engineer, _and_ musician) reasons. I have been saving up to buy 2-3 4-channel analog I/O cards and the software to do digital recording/mixdown, but if I can do this on a linux box then I will be in hog heaven!

    Please post any links to this sort of thing (I already know about the program named "multitrack", I just haven't taken the time to download a recent version and look at it). If there were a group devoted to working on this I would like to join and donate some time as both a programmer as well as a "sound guy"

    --
    If only "common" sense was actually that common...
  2. Killer app for Composers? by edgy · · Score: 3

    I mentioned this on an IRC channel that I'm a member of, and 2 or 3 people from the channel immediately went, "No way! Where is it?"

    Then minutes later, "Looks like I got to get my shit together and install Linux"

    :-) This can only be good for Linux.


  3. Re:Wow . . . what is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3

    MAX is a graphical programming language used to manipulate MIDI data and audio signals written originally by Miller Puckette and David Zicarelli at IRCAM, then later ported to Macintosh and released commercially by Opcode. MAX allows nontechnical musicians to hook up graphical objects (representing a variety of functions in MIDI, audio, data and processing) in almost any configuration to achieve things they would never be able to do with traditional MIDI/Audio sequencer. It's perfect for tweakheads who want to create their own interactive processing setups, and now it's on Linux, and GPL'd!!! I have been using Max in performance now for about about two years, controlling effects, synthesizer timbres, and realtime audio, and I must say that MAX is a relatively simple program to learn that has great depth and potential. A great day has indeed arrived...

  4. great. pd too! by spot · · Score: 3
    wow, this looks great. I have been using Max on the macintosh for some time (my GPL visual musical project bomb works in Max), and been very frustrated by the proprietary environment (despite the wonderful people behind it).

    with max, you can have either MIDI or digital audio (with the MSP extension) flowing along wires that connect boxes. the boxes are objects that you can write in C. It's really good for doing real time control & interactive things.

    jMax is scriptable in tcl (no java here, despite the name), and looks like it has the same midi/audio capabilities.

    lately i have just started working with pd, which is miller puckette's current software platform. it uses the same box/wire and midi/audio ideas. see his page. It works on linux and also has a OpenGL graphics package GEM, so you can do 3d graphics with music.

    now i have to choose between pd and jmax! oh sorry day :)


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