Max (software)

Max
Developer(s)Cycling '74
Stable release
8.6.2[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 19 March 2024
Written inC, C++ (on JUCE platform)
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows, macOS
TypeMusic and multimedia development
LicenseProprietary
Websitecycling74.com/products/max/

Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, performers, software designers, researchers, and artists to create recordings, performances, and installations.[2]

The Max program is modular, with most routines existing as shared libraries. An application programming interface (API) allows third-party development of new routines (named external objects). Thus, Max has a large user base of programmers unaffiliated with Cycling '74 who enhance the software with commercial and non-commercial extensions to the program. Because of this extensible design, which simultaneously represents both the program's structure and its graphical user interface (GUI), Max has been described as the lingua franca for developing interactive music performance software.[3]

  1. ^ "Max 8.6.2 Release Notes | Cycling '74". 19 March 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Max/MSP for average music junkies". Hopes&Fears. Retrieved 2018-09-16.
  3. ^ Place, T.; Lossius, T. (2006). "A modular standard for structuring patches in Max" (PDF). Jamoma. New Orleans, US: In Proc. of the International Computer Music Conference 2006. pp. 143–146. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-02-16.