Cycling ’74 Max 8
It’s a big year for the Max audio and video interactive programming environment, as it celebrates not only its own 30th birthday, but also the 20th birthday of its long-term custodians, Cycling ’74.
The just-released latest version, Max 8, boasts a number of worthy improvements over v7. These include, amongst other things, the ability to send multiple signals down a single patch cable; the new Mappings system, which makes light work of assigning hardware MIDI controllers to parameters; Integrated Search; the Open GL-powered Vizzie 2 module collection for building interactive visuals; and Node for Max, connecting Max to the Node.js JavaScript run-time environment.
The expected ‘general performance improvements’ have also been implemented, and naturally, given that Cycling ’74 are owned by Ableton, Max 8 will also serve as the basis of the next version of Max for Live.
Max 8 can be yours now for $399 on Mac and PC, with the upgrade from eligible earlier versions priced $149.