Pure Data Facelift

photo credit: aoifejohanna

All I’m waiting for to begin work on my monome, are 64 red LEDs and so I’m thinking ahead about programming languages. I don’t speak a programming language, but I may be looking to get started soon to make music. Everyone seems to love the power of object oriented programming in MAX/MSP, but it’s expensive at $495.

New York’s own Peter Kirn may have the answer for me. He’s got an awesome site, Create Digital Music, where he reports on the best stuff going on in the diy electronic music world. He reports that Pure Data (PD) has had a bit of a facelift and is easier to work with.

Hans-Christoph Steiner has been working for a long time on “Pd-extended”, adding a lot of that polish and documentation, and making the whole thing easier to install. There’s a major new, finished release that came out last week. “Easy” might not be the appropriate word — but “easier”, combined with “powerful” and “free”, might get your attention.

I’ll keep you up to date as I start work on my little monome device and start seeking help to make it actually do something! – Link