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I've read a number of posts on Apple's forums, and a number of posts on the Cycling '74 forums (with my own questions scattered around both) and nobody seems to be able to help me.

I used Max/MSP to write a 'patch' that takes samples and generates music. I'm going to release it as an album similar to Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon, but wanted to make it available to people so they can have the music last for more than the hour a CD can hold.

What I don't know how to do, and can't figure out is HOW. It looks just like a regular OS X app, and the only difference I see in the directory structure is that my Max/MSP made application has extra .framework folders as well as the objects I use (which I guess are similar to 'functions' in JScript). I've looked at the package contents of both OS X files and the unpacked .ipa files from the App Store. Being so similar I would imagine it'd be pretty easy.

Where do I start? Has anybody on this forum done this? Thanks for your time!

[edit] - I just wanted to let you know I've discovered RJDJ, an iOS app that allows users to create 'scenes' in Puredata (Pd) and load them on their RJDJ program. I'd rather not go this route.

[edit2] - ok. I agree that it's very different. Especially having 4 (i could cut it down to 3) additional frameworks that aren't part of the SDK. But Ive been thinking. I can add a JavaScript object inside of my program, or make a special new object (object in max is sort of like a class in JS, i think) using C. Is there anything in these languages that would be able to convert a simple 'touch' to a 'mouseclick' in my app?

My application is very very simple. Basically just samples, played at randomly generated time intervals with some a 'conductor' to bring in/out the groups the samples are drawn from (piano, fx, etc...). So the user just clicks the 'start' button and off it goes. So the .nib file I would need to create is very simple. In my head it seems like the .ipa package/ios .app both contain unix executables and so long as these are basically the same it should work, right?

bobsbarricades
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Max6 has been released. A new object/concept named gen~ is available. As far as I discussed with C74 dev, I know gen~ WILL provide its source code output. This code produce by the gen~ object could be useable in any other framework. basically, it will be C++ So it would really open A LOT of possibilities ; Max becoming a real graphical framework producing output that can be used in programming world. It would save time for some part of the code.

gluon
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As far as I can see from poking around at the Cycling '74 site and forums, there's currently no Max engine available for iOS. libpd is probably your best bet, really. (I'd note that the Inception app uses this Pure Data engine with a custom interface and it works very well.)

Hans-Christoph Steiner
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Joe McMahon
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  • I would be limited to only the iPhone/iPTouch (or iPad zoomed...) and to only people that have the RjDj app installed. Now that's fine, another isolated social community, but I'm sort of betting on compulsory intrigue in the apple markets as a form of exposure. If I'm part of the already populated RjDj social scene, there is no room to reach new audiences. They know what they're gonna get, ya know? I'm currently going down that avenue however, but I doubt RjDj are willing to work with a no-name indie like me on making a stand-alone outside of their app. – bobsbarricades Jun 08 '11 at 19:45
  • I'm assuming a lot, but it seems like all the artist that DO get standalone's still have the RjDj logo on the bottom and they all cost money. =/ – bobsbarricades Jun 08 '11 at 19:51
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    They seem to be working on an iOS library, though the details aren't up yet on their site. http://gitorious.org/pdlib/pd-for-ios is I think what you're looking for. There are a couple sample apps in there that are *not* RjDj-based. In addition, http://www.mkonrad.net/Blog/Paper-about-real-time-audio-synthesis-on-iOS-devices has a paper that compares CoreAudio, libpd, MoMu/Synthesis ToolKit, and CocosDenshion. Last, there's http://momu.stanford.edu/toolkit/, a mobile music toolkit based on STK and OSC. – Joe McMahon Jun 08 '11 at 23:17
  • thank you for those links! I don't know how you find this stuff! – bobsbarricades Jun 09 '11 at 00:22
  • "ios audio synthesis library" found all of these. Good search to set up a Google Alert for. – Joe McMahon Jun 09 '11 at 19:04
  • i did not even know about Google Alert's. WIN! Thanks! – bobsbarricades Jun 09 '11 at 19:22
  • Just to make clarity the relationship: libpd is a free software project lead by Peter Brinkmann, it is a library wrapper to Pure Data. RjDj contributes some to libpd and uses it in their apps. – Hans-Christoph Steiner Dec 12 '11 at 15:26
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Unfortunately OSX and iOS apps are completely different under the hood. Outwardly they look similar (eg. you've noted the .app extension) but the internals are completely different.

jhocking
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  • I'm not sure how that would help you at all. When I said they are completely different, I wasn't only talking about the input devices. I mean at a machine language level, like trying to run Windows software on a Mac. Just for starters (this is far from the only difference, just the most fundamental) iOS devices use an ARM processor, while Macs use Intel chips. – jhocking Jun 08 '11 at 19:39
  • [added update edit] ah, so the unix executables are different too? on that topic, I am assuming that the unix executable is what would access the frameworks/classes that run the app? – bobsbarricades Jun 08 '11 at 19:41
  • Yes, if you mean the application which is running on the device. To get a Max app running on the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, you'd need a copy of those frameworks built for those devices, and unless you can get Cycling '74 to build them for you, you're out of luck. – Joe McMahon Jun 08 '11 at 23:31
  • thank you. that is pretty much the definitive, "i need to learn another language" answer I was looking for (though hoping to avoid). I like the MOMU project and it seems so bare bones simple as to benefit me, but if I just go ahead and learn Objective-C I'd be better off for the future yes? Maybe I'll e-mail MOMU guys because they're sure to know about Max users intimately. But that pd lib... – bobsbarricades Jun 09 '11 at 00:21
  • To run Max binaries on iOS, you would need ARM-compiled binaries from Cycling '74. So even if you have all the right frameworks on iOS, Max/MSP won't run on iOS since its compiled for x86 (and maybe still PowerPC). – Hans-Christoph Steiner Dec 12 '11 at 15:23