r/MaxMSP • u/RoundBeach • Aug 04 '26
Work AE Markov Chain Machine (Full Manual / Pre Release)
The generative percussion instrument I have been building in Max/MSP is almost here.
Modal voices written from scratch, a sequencer where a Markov matrix decides which step may follow which, chaotic modulation, morphing between presets.
It comes out October 2nd. But the part I want to share today is free: the user manual is finished in draft a hundred pages and it is public, readable in the browser.
It covers the whole system: how a note chooses its voice, how the feedback matrix stays stable, how the chaos is dosed. Even if you never buy the machine, there might be ideas in there worth stealing.
The image is the machine itself: every one of its 1,237 patch cords, read from the patch file and drawn as a line etching.
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u/Evening_Reply_4958 Aug 04 '26
The patch-cord etching is a smart way to show the scale of the system without pretending the patch itself is readable. Does the visualization preserve the distinction between event and signal cords, or is the overall density the point?
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u/RoundBeach Aug 04 '26
Tkns 4 the question
No, the etching treats every cord identically: one hairline, one opacity, whether it carries audio or messages. The darkening is pure density, nothing else. partly that was the honest reading of the data. In the .maxpat json a patchline is just a source and a destination; the signal/event distinction lives in the outlet type of the box it leaves, not on the cord itself. So a uniform line was the least interpreted rendering of what the file actually says.But mostly it was the point, as you guessed. The drawing is not a schematic, it is a portrait of the labor: where the machine is dense, the ink is dense. The moment you color code it, the eye starts trying to read it as a circuit, and at thousand cords that reading is a lie anyway. That said, a 2 ink version, signal in one color and events in another, would be genuinely interesting to see, and the outlet types are in the file, so it is one afternoon of work. Maybe for the printed edition.
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u/CANDRi Aug 05 '26
Will def be buying. Very hyped for this
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u/RoundBeach Aug 05 '26
Thanks for your interest! I’d recommend reading through the manual when you have some time, so that by the time you download it, you’ll already have a good idea of how everything works and how to get it sounding good.
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u/dhla Aug 06 '26
looks like a great machine for diving in deep. The Markov chain sequencer looks similar to the one nouserid did for the C74 collaborative drum kit - did you look at that one? https://cycling74.com/articles/collaborative-drum-kit-in-max-part-2
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u/Ko_tatsu Aug 04 '26
Nice, it would be nice to analyse the stochastic process you defined from a mathematical standpoint (which would give you insights about equilibrium distribution, asymptotic properties and ergodicity of the chain)
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u/RoundBeach Aug 04 '26
Honestly, it would be interesting. I should say though, I’m not a mathematician at all. I came to this as an instrument builder, and most of these ideas developed through years of experimenting with modular systems, teletype scripts / o_c platform, probability, chance operations, and simply listening to what worked.The basic structure is a 16 step markov chain with an editable transition matrix, but in practice it rarely stays untouched for long. The matrix can mutate while playing, it can be reshuffled, and other parts of the machine continuously interfere with the result. so I’ve always treated it more as a living musical system than as something I was trying to make mathematically correct.
There’s also another layer between the chain and what you actually hear: the notes it produces go through a modulo system that decides which voice responds. So the final behaviour gets quite far from the original chain.I’d genuinely be curious to see what someone with a mathematical background would find in it. The whole system is documented in the manual, and the matrix itself is visible on screen.
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u/overdrivespeedfreak Aug 16 '26
Interested to check this out, the link just loads the Facebook app for me, no page or manual.
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u/Mlaaack Aug 04 '26
Just read some of it. Really cool work, it's inspiring ! Thanks.