With Latent Terrain, crack open AI and explore neural synthesis in Max

“I’m not particularly interested in typing prompts to make stuff, I’m interested in breaking them and dissecting them,” writes Jasper Shuoyang Zheng as he introduces Latent Terrain. Now using an intuitive, elegantly designed open-source Max external and UI, you can play the weird world of neural audio codecs like an instrument, transforming your own sounds into new textures.

Turn Ableton Push 3 into a single expressive percussive surface, free

The most exciting add-on for Ableton Live this spring for me is actually not an Ableton Extension. It’s warpradius, a Max for Live device by Jon Doe One that transforms the entire grid into a single expressive percussion surface. It employs a Bessel membrane resonator model, a modal synthesis method that produces realistic, varied percussion sounds. And it’s free.

Peter Kirn - June 15, 2026

This free tool lets you create interactive, live graphic scores in Ableton Live

It might blur the line between VJ/animation tool and score generator. But SIGN/e lets you produce graphical scores that live inside an Ableton Live session, as abstract shapes appear and shift in time with the electronic music. And with the right players, it looks like a godsend — free, provided you can run Max for Live.

Peter Kirn - May 15, 2026

Link Audio, now in Max, Pd, VCV Rack, TouchDesigner, oF, and plug-ins, free

Peter Kirn - May 3, 2026

Max for Move: run RNBO patches on Ableton Move — like Granulator III

Peter Kirn - March 17, 2026

Learn spectral filters and other spectral tricks in Max (or elsewhere)

Peter Kirn - March 2, 2026

plugdata, cyclone get major updates — free stuff for patchers and end users

Peter Kirn - February 24, 2026

Breaking: cave-like reflections in Robert Henke’s free Lanzarote Verb

Peter Kirn - February 16, 2026

Filter Delays, free Max for Live stereo effect from Robert Henke

Peter Kirn - February 15, 2026