Deep in the annals of software’s virtual guts, its wires and nodes, what defines patching on the computer is that it’s eminently human. Perhaps in this age of instant results, that’s drawing a new generation to the manual, personal labor of computer construction. So now is a perfect time for Max-patching musician Tom Hall — and no one better to interview him than our friend David Abravanel. -Ed.
Given the readership of CDM, I assume many of you already get what I mean in the header with the “Max sound”. Maybe you can’t define it exactly, but it’s a bit liquid, a bit phased, a kind of wet slapping FM percussion. EP7-era Autechre, or Phoenecia’s Brownout, AGF’s glitch poetry.
The good (or bad if you don’t care about my quirky quests) news is that Tom Hall patiently and quickly grokked to what I was trying to identify. The even better news is that he had loads more to share about electronic music, learning Max, scenes in Brisbane, Tasmania and Tokyo, and much, much more.
If you’re read about Tom Hall here before on CDM, you know that he’s both a long-standing part of the team at Cycling ’74 and a passionate member of the community. He’s been neck deep in the work of bringing new features, ideas, and inspirational paths to digital artists. In fact, I still have a free snare synth that I built in Live based on one of Tom’s excellent Max tutorials.
On top of it all, Tom is also an excellent musician – one who has humbly dropped gems over the decades on great labels like Elli and Superpang.
I sat down with Tom to talk about how latest work, the Trip Computer. During a long conversation, topics ranged from creating compositional systems, nature and digital sound, releasing on vinyl, and much more.
Jumping right in to Trip Computer – was it all made in Max?
It’s 100% Max. The sequencing is in Max, the synthesis is in Max. There are no samples — everything is 100% Max except for one thing. On the track “Null,” there are some pads that I played on the Delia.
I record through a multichannel audio file, so I’m not mixing inside Max. Then I take it into Ableton to do the final mix. The final mix isn’t complex — just changing the tiniest details in the EQ. No additional effects. It’s usually just mixing the percussive stuff down into a drum bus. All of it is really about adding that little extra polish.
Tom Hall – “Null”
“It’s 100% Max. The sequencing is in Max, the synthesis is in Max. There are no samples — everything is 100% Max.”
I’ve seen your videos on using the Delia, with its motorized knobs. How did it fall into place for “Null”?
With “Null,” something kept telling me it needed more. A big reason I used the Delia is because it’s sitting right next to me — I’ve been doing sound design for Melbourne Instruments. Also, I didn’t want to go back and record a whole new segment out of the Max patch and mix it again from scratch. I just ran the track multiple times and played the pads. Those pads are not sequenced — I actually played them. It’s the only sound and the only progression on there that isn’t 100% Max.
And you’re friendly with the folks at Melbourne Instruments?
The funny story with Melbourne Instruments is that I’m Australian, so I gravitate toward Australian makers. Australia’s had some incredible synth designers over the decades. There was some pretty experimental modular synthesis happening early on — none of it really got worldwide attention, but there was a lot going on down there.
Last summer, I was teaching audio synthesis at USC in Los Angeles and thought, “I want a small desktop synth with polyphony.” I had some requirements — I need to be able to LFO an LFO. A lot of synths still don’t allow that, which is very useful in sound design. Coming from a Max background, I want that level of modulation.
I narrowed it down to two synths — one I won’t name, and the Melbourne Instruments Nina. I was about to buy one, but then I got a message from a friend in Melbourne, David Haberfeld (Honey Smack). He said, “Hey, are you doing sound design right now for companies? Because I just started at Melbourne Instruments.” Total coincidence. He brought me on immediately.
So I helped with early alpha testing of their Roto-Control — the MIDI controller with the motorized knob. That controller completely shocked me. I didn’t know I was missing this level of functionality in my performance setup. It’s made playing live significantly more fun, tactile, immediate. You’re never lost; you’re always where you need to be. If I change a setting in Max, it immediately updates on Roto Control, or vice versa. It’s something that needs to be experienced to fully comprehend.
There’s a certain percussion style on Trip Computer that reminds me of early Autechre or AGF or Richard Devine – almost a “Max sound”, if that’s a thing?
I think so. If we step back even lower than the synthesis types themselves — the way Max works is by clumping samples into vectors, groups of samples it processes at once. From when David Zicarelli launched Cycling and MSP [note – Max today consists of three languages – Max (logic), MSP (digital signal processing), and Jitter (visuals)] became available as an add-on to Max, from around 1998 up to 2011 when Gen was introduced — Gen works per-sample — Max had a harder sound.
It was also people learning DSP in a modular sense versus analog modular. In DSP, almost any algorithm needs at least one sample of delay to avoid feedback. That’s not the case in analog. There were great early MSP iterations like SugarSynth, a granular synthesizer. Early 2000s artists — Rehberg, Farmer’s Manual, Tim Hecker, Fennesz — all used Max.
There’s an abstraction in Max called “simpleFM~.” It’s a two-operator FM algorithm. That got rinsed by everyone. You put a couple of functions into harmonicity and modulation index, and you get all sorts of sounds. It got used by Autechre, Mark Fell, everyone using Max probably used it.
John Chowning — the guy who pioneered FM — uses Max now. He’s done presentations and is collaborating with Mark Fell in Max. FM synthesis is a big part of Max’s history. The sound of Max established itself in that late-’90s to mid-’00s era as real-time DSP became accessible. With Gen, RNBO, and the Ableton DSP objects, we’ll probably see the sound of Max evolve beyond that, but folks like us will always remember that era.
How do you balance randomness and structure when you’re sequencing and designing sounds with Max?
Literally the only thing looping [in my system] is a phasor. My entire system — which you could call a digital audio workstation since it has tracks, slots, multiple sequencers, a note sequencer — all ultimately comes from one phasor.
The balance between repeatable moments for listeners and randomization to keep me interested — that’s the key. Besides techno, everything else is too monotonous for me. Techno satisfies me because it’s so rigid. Everything between that and experimental music has to be really good to keep me entertained.
I have to remind myself not to change something every bar. Trip Computer might be challenging for some people — a few friends have said that.
Tom Hall – “Void Pointer”
“The balance between repeatable moments for listeners and randomization to keep me interested — that’s the key.”
You once made a sequencer from a video of ants. Is nature a big influence?
Yeah, definitely. That piece was fascinating — using external input, but from nature. It ties into the algorithmic behavior of ants, bees — the way they move and organize.
Nature’s always been part of my work. I’m still more influenced by environment and where I grew up than by other artists. We had a large property with a lot of bush. My sister wasn’t into the farm, but I’d disappear into the bush with the dog. That was my independence.
What was your musical upbringing like in Australia – when did you come to the US?
I was in Australia until 2010; I’ve been here almost 15 years.
I remember Tom Ellard from Severed Heads saying that pre-Internet, Australian artists were a very close community and frequently borrowed gear from each other.
Yeah. Everyone borrowed gear. Australia’s big but the population’s small, and it’s isolated. It was expensive to buy anything — computers, instruments, everything. I was into metal through the ’90s until friends started throwing drum and bass parties. I’d go after metal shows because the DnB ones ran later, and that’s how I got into electronic music.
And Psytrance was big then, yeah?
Yeah. Australia basically invented the outdoor rave — the “bush doof.” Out in the middle of the bush. Some of those events have been going for decades. I played Rainbow Serpent Festival out in Victoria. Psytrance really played into that.
How did you move towards IDM and experimental sounds?
I went to university for photography in the early 2000s, then did an exchange to Japan. When I got there, the photography department was full, so they put me in media arts — After Effects classes, J-Pop recording sessions. I was way in over my head!
I bought a Titanium PowerBook in Japan — way cheaper than in Australia — and it came with GarageBand. I started making sound pieces, recording sounds on the streets and recomposing them — like the jingles when you walk into a 7-Eleven in Japan. I’d make weird rhythmic compositions out of that.
I thought of audio like clay — something visual that you shape and form. That’s still how I think.
My sensei at Kyoto Seika University showed me Max. My life changed. It spoke to me — especially coming from a conceptual arts background. I could build a system that related to the conceptual project, make it work how I wanted. No limitations.
I started using Max in a hybrid practice — spitting out something from GarageBand, processing it in Max, then back to GarageBand. I saw Prefuse 73 live by accident on tour in Kyoto — it blew my mind. The university had a massive CD collection. I discovered Autechre there and from friends’ hard drives full of MP3s. I was listening to them before I even knew how to say their name.
When I got back to Australia, I did my honors year at the Australian National University in Canberra. I convinced my lecturers to let me do a final project with no photos — just hybrid audiovisual sculptures you climbed into for a personal experience.
After graduating, I moved to Brisbane for no particular reason — a friend lived there, and after cold Tasmania I wanted tropical weather. It turned out to be crucial. There was a huge experimental scene in Brisbane around 2005–2010. The Wire magazine even did a four-page piece on it. There was a weekly event called Audio Pollen behind a vegan café — hundreds of people, amazing performers.
Tom Hall & Lawrence English – Euphonia
Lawrence English from Room40 lived there and brought out international acts like Tim Hecker. I opened for Tim when he debuted Harmony in Ultraviolet in Australia. Meeting your idols early is surreal. Tim’s still a friend — we catch up when we’re in the same town.
That scene let me play constantly — sometimes every week. Local bars would let you play anything you wanted on a Wednesday and pay $300.
Was this performing with just a laptop and Max?
It’s almost always been integrated. I used Ableton Live and Max together up to about 2010–11. I’d route audio between them using a MOTU Ultralite, literally jack outputs back into inputs. Borderline suicidal setup — no latency but constant risk of feedback.
Jeff Kaiser saw me play in Berlin and was impressed. He introduced me to Andrew Pask at Cycling ’74. Jeff knew Max for Live was coming. I got home, emailed Andrew, joined the alpha, and started testing.
By 2011 I moved to L.A. My wife’s from here. Andrew invited me over for tacos, asked what I was doing for work, and a few months later Cycling offered me a position. I couldn’t take it right away because my green card wasn’t through. A year later, they called again — a better position, full time, in tech support.
I did tech support for about three years. You’re basically responsible for testing Max every day, so my skills went from maybe 30% to the stratosphere. I remember dreaming in Max the first few months.
I remember dreaming in Max the first few months
And you worked with Darwin Grosse, yeah? How did he influence your output in and out of work?
Yeah, Darwin, man. I mean, it’s a bit over three years now since he passed. I don’t know where I’d be without him! From 2015 right up until he passed, he was my direct reporting manager at Cycling ’74. He was the person that I talked to the most, by far, at Cycling ’74. But he was also… it’s hard, I think calling him a manager is very reductive. He was more like a mentor, a friend. We collaborated, we had a little business together on the side. He was many things. And he was just so good at giving very sage advice.
Where did the track titles come from here?
They’re all terms used in computer coding — either errors or safety mechanisms. The Trip Computer title comes from the car trip computer in my parents’ 1993 Holden Commodore, still on the farm in Tasmania.
I keep a document where I jot down interesting terms — been keeping it for 15 years. Some of my past albums came from it: Bestowed Order on Chaos, Failed Attempts at Silence. “Mutex Lock” wasn’t in the document, though. Jeremy Bernstein at Cycling solved a problem I was having by adding a mutex lock. I thought, “That’s a cool name.” Looked it up, and it fit perfectly.
“P90” refers to our first family PC — a Pentium 90. “Syntax Anomaly” was almost an accident — a track I didn’t intend to make. My Max system is now so complex it can surprise me. I don’t have it set to start in a specific state; sometimes I restart and it sounds completely different. I like that. I can save the system in that state and return to it later. “Syntax Anomaly” has this borderline rave quality, and I love how the melody plays across octaves.
Tom Hall – “Syntax Anomaly”
There’s a very digital sound to the album, a kind of tight one. When mixing and mastering, do you think about analog vs. digital?
I think the analog versus digital argument is redundant. Sure, analog clipping sounds different — you don’t deal with Nyquist or aliasing — but I like digital dirt. I mix as cleanly as possible without altering what came out of Max. Maybe I’ll rein in some harsh harmonics in the high end.
I’m conscious that I can tolerate a lot of high frequencies, so I balance that. My friend Anthony Baldino helped with mixing. He’s incredible — does sound design for big films like Transformers and the F1 movie. He can tell me, “This harmonic at 13k is killing everyone,” and I trust him.
I used to master my own work. Around 2019 I asked Joshua Eustis from Telefon Tel Aviv to master Bestowed Order on Chaos. When I heard his first masters, I realized — he didn’t change the sound, but it hit differently. It was like finishing a painting — knowing when it’s done.
For Trip Computer, I worked with Sean Hatfield from Audible Oddities — an Emmy- and Juno-winning mastering engineer. He started his career using Max, which mattered to me. He understood where the sound came from. We did a couple of revisions and I was very happy.
What inspired you to release this one on vinyl?
A big reason was that my friends starting Onyx Records, a pressing plant in Arcadia, during the pandemic. I could visit and watch records being pressed. Fast turnaround, supporting indie artists – I got my record done in less than five months.
There are 100 black copies, 30 “Trip Editions” with crazy mixed colors, and 30 “Nord Red” editions only available at live shows.
Tom Hall’s album Trip Computer is available now.
Wait, this could be you! Yes, you! In addition to Tom’s excellent tutorials, we’ve got a starter series on introducing Max through Max for Live and Ableton DSP objects: