max/msp quick start

hi,

i've been programming for much longer than i've been writing music. i've also done electronics work, and even vaugely understand the math behind fourier transforms. so, max/msp, in my first motions of dicking around with it, feels pretty natural, actually.

HOWEVER, like learning a programming language, even if you know how to program, you still have to memorize a lot of crap. essentially, i'll know vaguely what i want to do using max, and how to lay it out functionally, but i don't know which functions do what... or if it even has a function that does what i'm thinking of!

i'm looking for two things:

1) a no-nonsense "quick reference" for max. says what all the funtions/objects are, some basic notes on common situations.

2) some good examples i can download and examine.

thanks!

turn on the object drop down list and look for interesting object names. then use the help file on those objects to see an example of its use (press alt-leftclick on the object).

there are some nice patches floating around on the internet. like these two autechre patches: http://www.recordlabelrecords.org/ae.html

those patches are neat but they arent made by autechre. they are made by a dude that thinks his patch sounds like autechre.

btw alt clicking is the best way to do it. start on the tutorials and just alt click every object of interest. then in the bottom of the "help" file that results from alt clicking there will be suggested objects that relate to the one you have alt clicked. all of these help files are also patches that can be modified so if you need to copy something from the tutorial or the help file its fair game, just ctrl click to unlock the file.