Those of you who know what that headline means are already excited: the final release of Max/MSP is shipping as of April 17 and Jitter as of yesterday from Cycling `74 (loop-based performance radiaL starting shipping at the end of March). For media tinkerers, electronic music geeks, interactive art installers, and a whole range of artists and developers that’s terrific news.
For those of you not in the loop(s), here’s the story: Max is an interactive graphical programming environment for music and media. It’s used by everyone from scientists to DJs to program by graphically connecting objects via on-screen patches. MSP and Jitter vastly expand its capabilities: MSP is a set of live audio-processing objects for Max, while Jitter processes graphics objects (3D objects, live video, and matrix data). Jitter can do everything from custom video effects to data visualization, with full control of multiple monitors and DV camera control via FireWire. (So in other words, imagine you could hack INSIDE Final Cut Pro and make it do anything you could dream of. That’s cool.) And Cycling `74 is on a roll this month: just at the end of last month, they announced shipment of radiaL, a loop-based composition and live performance tool. That box just arrived in my mail, so expect a review soon.
Clear your schedules, there’s a ridiculous amount of power to play with here. Jitter is a free upgrade for existing users, ditto Max/MSP for existing Max/MSP users; radiaL is US$239-49, Max is list US$250, Max/MSP list US$495, Jitter is US$395 for Max/MSP users and US$495 for everyone else, or you can get Max, MSP, and Jitter for US$850.
