Max/MSP Comes to Windows

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Cycling '74 has announced the release of its long awaited Windows versions of the Max and MSP graphical programming environments. Max and MSP will now be cross platform products with both Mac OS and Windows versions in the same package. Any customer who purchased after July 1, 2003 will receive the crossgrade product for free.

Max has been an environment for the development of interactive media and live performance applications for over a decade, but has been previously only available on the Macintosh platform. Max allows one to build programs (called "patches") by connecting graphical objects together. Some objects perform calculations and others make up the user interface of the program. MSP adds a large set of objects that connect together to make audio patches where signals flow from one object to the next.

Building applications with Max is interactive. The moment two objects are connected, the program is working. The main goals of Max allow control of anything with anything and to explore cross-media applications by prototyping and constructing custom interactive media applications and interfaces. It schedules events with millisecond accuracy, create complex mappings for incoming data, and will run a large number of operations in parallel.

The Windows versions of the software allow for cross-platform development of applications. Max/MSP patches developed on one platform open seamlessly on the other, and use consistent abstractions for all types of media protocols and interfaces, including MIDI, digital audio soundfiles and interfaces. The Windows version supports PCs running Windows XP with audio devices supported by WAV, or ASIO. Max/MSP hosts ReWire devices and VST plug-ins and supports all major audio file formats. Features are essentially identical between the Windows XP version and the current version of Max/MSP for Mac OS X. Users will be able to develop their own Max or MSP external objects written in C, and distribute their work to others using the free MaxMSP runtime application. Support for developing VST plug-ins on Windows will be available shortly.

Price and Availability

Max/MSP for Windows is now available from Cycling '74 dealers worldwide and directly from Cycling 74's website. The prices of the dual platform software are: $250 for Max and $495 for Max/MSP. Any customers who purchased after July 1, 2003 receive the crossgrade free of charge. Any customers who purchased before July 1st will have the option to purchase a $29 crossgrade.