Electronic Music and the NeXTcube – Running Max on the Ircam Musical Workstation

You gotta love that Tcl/Tk node based user interface in Max/FTS - something that is still alive today in Pd (Pure Data). Sure, it is clunky, probably not in line with any modern UX design rules. But, at the same time, it is kind of timeless, brutalistic and stylish in all its monochrome ugliness.

My memory is that IRCAM at one point used the Digital systems Dec-10 for its music production. I have vague memories of visiting the Pompidou Centre in the early 80s, with ICRAM nearby.<p>At the time, the best most of us got was doing FM by toggling address lines fast and sitting a radio next to the CPU cabinet (there was code to do this on the DECUS tape). -AM was out because digital devices tend to be in the constant volts place.

The NeXTcube is an influential machine in computing history. The NeXTcube, with an additional soundcard, was also one of the first off-the-shelf devices for high-quality, real-time music applications. Here a restored NeXTcube runs an early version of MAX, an environment for interactive music applications.

Speaking of early music workstations, I&#x27;ve heard that the inventor of FM synthesis John Chowning used Lisp machines, and his work evolved into this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ccrma.stanford.edu&#x2F;software&#x2F;clm&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ccrma.stanford.edu&#x2F;software&#x2F;clm&#x2F;</a>

About IRCAM, I remember experiencing a spatial audio demo there, almost 30 years ago.<p>Put their headphones on. The sound seems to come from one side. Turn your head towards it. The sound comes straight in front of you. Intuitive and neat. In all VR headsets nowadays... Very cool place.