Cycling 74’sMax/MSP and Jitter offer awesome power for developing interactive multimedia, but building everything from scratch can get time-consuming fast. Part of the draw of reusable objects is the ability to incorporate time-saving pre-built tools rather than reinventing the wheel with each new project. That’s the idea behind the insanely-cool bundle of Max goodies, Electrotap’s Tap.Tools. Newly-released version 2.0 has over 150 “externals” (objects for Max) for tasks like:
Still want more? How about ADSR envelope generators, buffer processing for loop recording and playback, XML file utilities, MIDI mapping, random number generators, AppleScript loading (on Mac), and fancy, reusable interfaces for envelope generation and parameter control, among others?
Here’s more good news: Tap.Tools is cheap enough for artists, with a US$65-99 license. Pay the US$99 and you can even build your own collectives, standalones, and plug-ins, and distribute your creations to whomever you want. (Definitely worth the extra $34!) You even have access to Source Code. Since my C++ skills are nonexistent, I’m planning to print it out and use it in my decorating, but programmers will be glad. As for the non-programmers, we’ll be building new plug-ins with motion tracking! (Check out Electrotap’s other stuff, too, from sensor hardware to its performance-oriented Jade software.)