CCRMA: jMax user's guide

jMax user's guide
jMax is a graphical programming environment for developing interactive real-time audio applications developed at IRCAM. The graphical interface has been written in Java and currently runs both on sgi's and linux worstations. Jmax currently is OpenSource (ie: comes with full source code).

jMax replaces the ISPW/NeXT/Max platform, it is a fully cross-platform, hardware independent solution, and offers backward compatibility with ISPW patches.

How to use
At ccrma you can use jMax on the O2 SGI's in the Trailer and at Studio D (it will NOT work in the Indy that's in the Library), and on any of the Linux workstations. WARNING: jMax will NOT work correctly if you don't do the following: to be able to start jMax you have to copy an initialization file into your home directory. Just copy this example to a file named ".jmaxrc" in your home directory. The file automatically detects the system type and starts the appropriate FTS server (it is actually tcl code).

To start jMax simply type "jmax" in a terminal, either in one of the SGI O2's or in a Linux PC... be patient, it takes a while to load.

There's not a lot of documentation included with the jMax package. Basic setup instructions and usage of the graphical interface can be found on the online docs. I have also downloaded the IRCAM documentation for FTS. It should be useful as jMax uses FTS as its dsp engine (but of course not all the documentation applies to jMax...). At least there's a reference to all FTS objects.

Versions

SGI

2.3.15 (stable)
[Sep 15 1999] 2.4.5

Linux

[March 24 1999] 2.3.16 (beta). Does not support full duplex audio (so don't enable audio input). Midi in and out are working.
[April 20 1999] 2.3.18: supports full duplex audio.
[September 15 1999] 2.4.5: first OpenSource version.

References

jMax home page at IRCAM
jMax Online Documentation
FTS Online Documentation:
- local copy to conserve bandwidth
- the original, FTS at IRCAM