About the Course

Create your own space to play with sound.

Build simple structures and connections that generate tone, rhythm, and interaction. Gradually develop them into more complex systems. You’ll work directly with signals: patching, listening, and modifying them in real time, building an intuition on how digital sound behaves.

As you progress, you’ll combine what you’ve learned to create synthesizers, sequencers, audio effects, and small utility tools. Extend, adapt, or repurpose them in your own projects.

The course provides a foundation for experimentation across performance, composition, installation, and tool-making, while keeping the process accessible and hands-on.

Max’s visual programming environment lets you think through connections: joining processes, shaping behavior, and discovering sound by building with it. No prior programming experience is required.


What You Will Learn

The course is structured to guide you from core principles to working audio systems. Each lesson introduces a small set of concepts applied in patching exercises.
You’ll start working with:
  • Signal & messages: Understand how Max handles data and audio flow
  • Timing: Create sequences and event-driven processes
  • Interaction: Control sound in real time with MIDI and UI
  • Synthesis: Build and control oscillators, envelopes, and filters
  • Processing: Shape and route sound with filters and effects
  • Recording: Capture and manipulate audio using buffers
  • Patch design: Build clear, modular, reusable systems
Alongside technical skills, the course develops a practical understanding of digital sound: how it behaves, how it can be shaped, and how to design audio intentionally.
Each module includes templates, links to additional resources, and short exercises that reinforce the concepts, helping you build confidence and skills step by step.



Curriculum



  Introduction
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  Max Overview: Objects, Data Types and Flow
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  MSP Overview: Electronic Sound, Digital Audio and Loudness
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  Building Blocks of Audio Programming
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  Synthesis I: Basic Synthesis
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  Audio Effects: Design and Customization
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  End of Part I
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Your Instructor

Cem Çakmak, PhD

I’m an engineer, sound artist, and researcher originally from Istanbul, now based in Berlin. I’ve been working with Max/MSP for over a decade—as a consultant and beta-tester for Cycling ‘74—keeping me closely connected to the software’s evolution.

My background includes an MSc in Music (Sonic Arts) from Istanbul Technical University and a PhD in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My research focuses on spatial electronic music, and I’ve presented and published at leading conferences and journals including NIME, ICMC, and the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society.

In this course, I combine practical expertise with a focus on clarity and hands-on learning, guiding you to understand not just how to patch in Max, but why design choices matter in sound creation and performance.

Signal-based

Understand how audio signals flow, transform, and interact inside Max through direct patching

Foundational

Build a solid base in synthesis, timing, and structured patch design you can reuse

Interactive

Max’s visual programming makes learning audio both interactive and fun.