Hey pd community!
I'm wondering what are the main differences between max/jitter and pd. Recently I 've realised a project with max, so I know a bit about that kind programming. Thanks for your help.
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Puredata is free open source software, Max costs money.

Puredata is more flexible and extensive than Max because it is maintained and
supported by a community who use it.

There are more freely available examples, patches, tutorials and documentation for Puredata than Max.

Max data can be imported into Puredata with Cyclone, but afaik the converse is not possible.

In many cases Max MSP has prettier GUI components, but depending on your point of view these can also be seen as fluff and cruft.

I consider Pd the "grown ups version of Max"

Since I don't use Max because I can't afford it (Cycling74 refused to offer me a complementary version in return for writing them tutorials) there may be advantages to Max I have no idea about.

The downside is what is typical of most free software, installation and configuration is more difficult.

So basically if you are prepared to do a little thinking and don't need a shrink wrapped spoon feed, it does more than Max, better, for free.

hallo obi,
thanks for the post, I was trying to find a similar post you made, about, er, a month ago when someone (new to Pd) wanted to know comparisons between Pd and Maxmsp (and another prog.). I remember you describing the downfalls of using a commercially produced program against an open source program which is being renewed regularly; i just couldn't find it, it might've helped to've quoted the link...

I had a question about Open Music (I operate a Mac) against Pd. Open Music is certainly cheaper than msp (120€(OM) as opposed to the 600$ (msp)), and (so I'm told) has a strong spectral analysis/fft, and a good support system. I wonder if you had any opinions about this.
A few respected colleagues suggested OM to me; another remarked that "Pd is really old, and even quite slow!" - i didn't have time to get him to elaborate, but -
-I imagined he was talking about live concert situation, using acoustic instruments, which is what he and I do; perhaps involving real time granular synthesis, rapid shifting between granular setting , sampling/transposition, spatialisation and circular movement amongst speakers (this referring to the "spat" module in msp). These would be my areas of concern, just now.

i don't believe it,
I found it, it wasn't as far away as last night(!):

http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-487-newbie-general-question-max-x-linux

@alistair said:

... I remember you describing the downfalls of using a commercially produced program against an open source program which is being renewed regularly

Hi Alistair,

I think my point there was actually the *advantage* of the commercial offering vis stability. It's great that FOSS applications are constantly up to date with new ideas and improvements, but this can work against you sometimes. Always be careful in upgrading to the latest versions and try to use the minimal set of units in your work until you know what is "permenant" and what is "fleeting". Some things just die off because their authors move on to ther things and nobody will adopt them to support.

For me it's extra difficult because I write a lot of Pd code for <b> others </b> to learn from, not just my own personal use..

I had a question about Open Music (I operate a Mac) against Pd. Open Music is certainly cheaper than msp (120€(OM) as opposed to the 600$ (msp)), and (so I'm told) has a strong spectral analysis/fft, and a good support system. I wonder if you had any opinions about this.

Sorry I do not know this software,

A few respected colleagues suggested OM to me; another remarked that "Pd is really old, and even quite slow!" - i didn't have time to get him to elaborate, but -
-I imagined he was talking about live concert situation, using acoustic instruments, which is what he and I do; perhaps involving real time granular synthesis, rapid shifting between granular setting , sampling/transposition, spatialisation and circular movement amongst speakers (this referring to the "spat" module in msp). These would be my areas of concern, just now.

I am afraid your colleague is misinformed. It's nonsense to suggest Pd is "slow" in any way because it's old. Software, unlike physical machines has a tendancy to get faster with time rather than slower (because it gets improved). If you look at the source of Pd you will see it's written in rather efficient vanilla C, that makes it run VERY fast indeed. The GUI which is TC isn't so fast, but that has nothing to do with it's performance.

Ok, thanks for this quick answer. I will have a try with PD. I had lots of unregularities with Max, so it's not a hard decision. Is it possible to have a similarity to a timeline- object?
cheers-
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