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MaxScore 2

MaxScore provides music notation in Max and Ableton Live!

Wouldn’t you like to work with a notation program that’s a little more flexible than Finale, Sibelius, Dorico etc? A program that can be driven by sending it messages and that can easily be extended by things that are essential to your workflow? A program that brings music notation to Ableton Live, and let’s you view the same music in different notation styles? A program that supports proportional scrolling scores that will be displayed on a handheld device and allows you to create microtonal or graphical scores which also act as controllers? 

If so, then MaxScore will be the right application for you. 

MaxScore is Max package for creating standard, microtonal, graphical and/or interactive scores further developed at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama within its Stage_2.0 outreach project.

 

Version 2.0.4 for Max 8.1.10 (and higher) and Ableton Live 10.1.30 (and higher) – posted on May 29, 2021.

Download for MacOS
Download for Windows

MaxScore / LiveScore requires the JDK. As of MaxScore 1.2.b8, it is included in the installer.

For a manual Java installation, get the JDK for your operating system

About MaxScore

MaxScore provides a barrage of different possibilities for musicians, composers, creators, programmers and not only. It offers maximum flexibility for music notation, as it gives the opportunity to create a score and interfere with it in multiple groundbreaking and creative ways. The advantage of using MaxScore in comparison to other professional notation environments is its integration into the Max environment, allowing programmers to adapt the application to their needs. MaxScore is a leading application for graphical and microtonal notation. It gives the opportunity to integrate graphics and it is designed to represent pitch with virtually unlimited precision. Furthermore, the API part of MaxScore is capable of rendering to different environments and interacting with 3d objects. It is there for the perfect tool to combine music notation with VR/AR environments. Another feature that makes MaxScore unique is its capability to export a score to different popular formats for professional publishing.

The Max Reference now contains a MaxScore Tutorial. It provides step-by-step instructions to various aspects of working with MaxScore.

Installation

Refer to this page for further instructions as to how to install MaxScore.

LiveScore

LiveScore is a visual notation environment for Live based on MaxScore. It is thoroughly integrated into Live via the API provided by Max and allows the transcription and editing of Live MIDI clips. Get more information here

Just her – Jester – Gesture

Live recording of “Just Her – Jester – Gesture” by Georg Hajdu. Recorded by Milan Maric (www.sittl.com) on June 13, 2016 at the Abrons Arts Center Playhouse.

Chen Lin, Augmented Kalimba

Projects & Pieces

Engaging, purposeful, and creative

MaxScore was originally commissioned by “Bipolar – German-Hungarian Cultural Projects” – an initiative of the Federal Cultural Foundation of Germany and is currently supported by Stage_2.0, project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within its Innovative Hochschule initiative.

Just her - Live Recording

Sonic Bloom

There may be a time when you need to create sheet music for your own composition. Unfortunately this feature isn't built into Ableton Live. If you have Max for Live, there is the now free LiveScore by Nick Didkovsky and Georg Hajdu, which offers music notation through a bunch of Max for Live devices. It is based on MaxScore, which is for standalone Max. LiveScore is integrated into Live makes the transcription and editing of Live MIDI clips possible.

Roomtone Variations (2011) - Nicolas Collins

I use a feedback system for finding the strong resonances (basically a 24 filter version of the Sabine Feedback Exterminator), and convert the fcs to their nearest tempered equivalent. I then “fold” the full range down, by octaves, to progressively narrower ranges — this latter tactic came from experiments I was doing on what I call “the fallacy of octave equivalence” (intervals change feeling with spread), about which I got into extended correspondence with Christian Wolff. I’ve included a pdf of typical notation sets and the final nulling filter set. Thank YOU guys for all the custom work & advice — I hope I can do it justice.

www.synthtopia.com

“MaxScore is more than a notation tool. It is an interactive performance object. MaxScore can play back a score and drive your MSP patches through a well-defined instrument interface. Scores can be created and modified in real-time. You can add notes explicitly by specifying durations and pitches, or use Max to generate an arbitrary stream of musical events and use MaxScore’s Transcriber to notate them automatically.''

https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org

"Didkovsky collaborated with composer Georg Hajdu to create MaxScore, which allows JMSL’s scoring package to communicate with the more popular audio programming environment Max/MSP. Currently, most of Didkovsky’s development energies are directed towards improving MaxScore."

Arne Eigenfeldt

"MaxScore has changed the way I work with Max (which I’ve been using since 1991). Since I’m trained as a composer, I feel most comfortable when I can see my music represented symbolically, and MaxScore allows for that seamlessly. My research into generative systems incorporating genetic algorithms, multiagent systems, and ALife approaches now find their “voice” in notated music. In December 2011, my research group presented a concert of Musical Metacreation (computationally creative systems that produce music that should be indistinguishable from human-composed), in which MaxScore was indispensable. My software generated compositions (using a multi-stage genetic algorithm) that were sent to MaxScore, and the data saved as MusicXML files, which were imported into Finale and performed by musicians."

Contact

MaxScore  is currently supported by Stage_2.0, project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within its Innovative Hochschule initiative.

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