In this chapter, we will explore the fundamentals of Max. We will see what it is, how to use it, what we can use it for, and what Max is not capable of, or for which tasks it would be cumbersome to use it. You'll understand when it's appropriate to use Max and when it could lead to frustration. Max is quite different in comparison to other (text-oriented) programming languages. It has the strength of being very intuitive as you will see; it can do a lot in real time, so we can get very direct feedback to what we do. In this chapter, we will try to get a feeling of what Max is and what comes with it, and start looking at the general workflow. We will cover the following topics:
Understanding Max and how it works
MSP (audio and signal processing in Max)
Jitter (video and matrix processing in Max)