Max 5.0.8

Max 5.0.8 is described as a graphical environment for music, audio, and multimedia that is designed to make your computer do things that reflect your individual ideas and dreams, used by performers, composers, artists, teachers, and students.

Major Features:

1. Time
   • Working with time is easier in Max than traditional programming because you use objects to create visual "timing machines" whose behavior you can see, hear, and modify as they operate.
   • In Max, the basic unit of time is milliseconds, but you can also use metrical time (for example, bars and beats). In Max, everything you create runs at the same time, something that is very hard to do in a traditional language. In addition to the metro object shown above, Max features timing objects that delay, quantize, measure time intervals, and perform time-based filtering. Max's unified notion of control based on numbers and events permits you to work with time in an intuitive and consistent way.
2. Interactivity
   • Working with interactivity is easier in Max because you can design interfaces visually, and the interfaces are then part of the program itself. For example, controls the timing and transport of the timing example above.
   • Max contains a rich set of user interface tools, including dials, buttons, menus, and text editors. At a deeper level, it's possible to control the entire user experience with cross-platform support for full-screen interfaces, HI devices, Quicktime video, and an embedded web browser. You can even script Max to construct interfaces dynamically.
3. Control
   • In Max everything can be connected to everything, because everything speaks numbers. Another way to say this is that modularity is a core design principle of everything in the software.
   • Max can control MIDI devices, serial devices, send data over a network, and handle user input devices. Any source of control is easily connected to anything you want to control. Most commonly, however, Max's powerful control features are applied to audio via MSP and visual media with Jitter. And MSP and Jitter offer their own control possibilities, from audio signal analyzers to video tracking and device support.
4. Extensibility
   • Max is powerful, but it might not do precisely what you want right out of the box. That hasn't stopped Max users from extending the environment in every possible direction. As a by-product of their work with the software, passionate Max users have contributed thousands of objects written in C, Java, or Javascript back to the user community.
5. Educational Resources
   • We'll be the first to admit that learning programming, even with an environment as interactive and thoughtfully designed as Max, doesn't necessarily happen instantly. Cycling '74 is committed to making learning the software as rewarding as possible, and an enormous amount of effort has been put into integrating the documentation into the software. You'll learn Max, MSP and Jitter using over a hundred step-by-step tutorials, plus a variety of other resources including interactive help files, examples, and reference materials you can access directly within the software.
   • Max/MSP/Jitter is taught at universities and other educational organizations all over the world, and has become the lingua franca of creative people working with interactive media. If you want a hands-on learning experience, Cycling '74 and many other organizations offer workshops in Max/MSP/Jitter.

Enhancements:

• Extensions that are the same file type as the default type (such as .maxhelp) can be chosen via a pop-up menu
• Inlet and outlet objects no longer cause crashes upon viewing assistance if the "comment" attribute contains more than 512 characters
• Zl: fix for list truncation when the list begins with a symbol and the list is the same size as the maximum limit for list length.
• Filebrowser: the preview pane now correctly displays the full path of all files when there are multiples of the same file in the searchpath.
• filebrowser: the reveal-in-finder button no correctly locates all files when there are multiples of the same file in the searchpath.
• Round: fix for bug when receiving list input where round would modify its input directly in memory before outputting the new values.
• Improved updating when monitors are added or deleted
• Annotation attributes are disabled for objects that ignore clicks
• Pattrstorage: fixed memory access bug during 'renumber' and 'remove'
• Bpatchers as well as objects in bpatchers now support annotations
• DLS Synth: now compatible with Snow Leopard
• Filewatcher: fixed crashes on the Mac caused by dramatic changes to the searchpath while Max is running.
• And much more.

Requirements: Be compatible with both Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista.