An application of Max/MSP in the field of live electro-acoustic music : a case study

For many years the integration of real-time digital audio signal processing with dynamic control has been one of the most significant issues facing live electro-acoustic music. While real-time electro-acoustic music systems began to appear as early as the 1970's, for approximately two decades a lack of portability and prohibitive cost restricted their availability to a limited number of electronic music studios and research centers.The rapid development of computer and music technologies in the 1990's enabled desktop-based real-time digital audio signal processing, making it available for general use. The introduction of the Max/MSP programming language in the 1990's ushered in a new era in electro-acoustic music by bringing a new unified environment for real-time digital signal processing and dynamic control to a wide audience.The potential of the Max/MSP programming environment for applications to live electro-acoustic music is the subject of this thesis. A prototype example of a real-time electro-acoustic music system based on Max/MSP is developed and discussed.**This dissertation includes a CD that is compound (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following applications: Mac OS 8.5; Opcode Max 3.5; Opcode OMS 3.6.2; Cycling '73 MSP; Microsoft Word 98; & Finale 3.5