[chuck-users] report on my first livecoding gig

[David Powers]

> > I am finding almost all of the "Academic" music kids at my local
> > Dorkbot (Melbourne, Australia) are using Max for their work, simply
> > because it was what their lecturers used. I am hoping to change their
> > opinions on the matter, and expose them to ChucK!
>
> Yes, that was the exact case here. Marcel, who organsed this, teaches MAX so
> most competitors were his students. MAX is great, nothing wrong with that,
> but I would've liked more diversity in this competition (I saw one other
> night as a spectator). After this finale I suspect next season will see more
> diversity.
>

I am getting really tired of how "MAX-centric" (not to mention
mac-centric) everyone who does any kind of experimental (or academic)
electronic music is. I guess part of my annoyance is that it's
prohibitively expensive, especially for a non-student. I can't afford
either Max, or a Mac. But I just find it strange how people are really
confused when I tell them I use PD instead of Max, and even though PD
is free nobody seems interested in using it. Max just has some sort of
"aura" of being the software you are "supposed" to use.

The same thing seems to apply to ChucK, except moreso, because code
really intimidates these people. They are really using Max because
they learned it in class, first, and second they rely on such a huge
amount of pre-built stuff, and may have little understanding of basic
coding logic. Now, I don't particularly want to build DSP from the
ground up (I still don't understsand stuff like fft math very well, or
basic filters), but working in PD and ChucK has, I believe, given me a
much better idea of the logic of constructing generative works from
scratch, so much so that I feel I could learn to do it in almost any
environment at this point with a little patience. I highly doubt that
the typical Max user could say the same.

I also wanted to say that Kassen's report has really inspired me to
try to get into livecoding by the end of the some, if I can ever get a
break from writing crappy PHP for people's websites...

~David