You might have missed it or thought this was about Push, but RNBO is included for all Max for Live users in Live 11.3. And in other RNBO news, folks are already combining sound and visuals on the Web with RNBO and JavaScript.
RNBO in your Web
Sure, AI is here to replace you as a coder before it eliminates our species, presumably. But that isn’t stopping some folks from having fun and enjoying some DIY tinkering. It’s all about creating stuff that now runs on everything from cheap embedded hardware (and Eurorack modules) to live in a Web browser with JavaScript. And now you can do that with whatever tool or language you like best. It’s a great chance to focus on making exactly what you want artistically and honing your skills.
Dylan Parker yesterday posted this nice video working with RNBO, Max, and JavaScript. Blinking color warning. (Also with the same warning – making a mess of blinking colors in a tab with the combo, as a hello world… or, hey, as your finished VJ set if you’re really really minimalistic.)
Here’s more info on that RNBO.js library. You can now include it with any JavaScript or TypeScript project:
It’s great that this relies on one of the enduring titles on generative creative coding, Generative Gestaltung (DE + JP + EN) and its great examples for the free p5.js.
RNBO in your Live
Joshua Kit Clayton from Cycling ’74 pointed out that RNBO is bundled and supported in Live on desktop and on Push standalone. But I want to repeat that here, as Max patchers who weren’t really thinking about Push might have missed the news – and it’s just as relevant to you.
If you missed this because you didn’t care about Push, I’ll just repeat it again:
With Live 11.3.1, RNBO will be bundled and supported within Live both on desktop and on Push standalone. In order to save edited RNBO patches and/or devices, one will need a full Max 8 and RNBO license, but already authored devices that make use of rnbo~ should work within Max for Live.
Users no longer will need to point to a separate Max install. Everything else should remain the same — i.e., RNBO patches will compile and run without a Max and RNBO license and saving patches for the construction of new devices with RNBO will require a Max and RNBO license (free to edit and explore, but not save without the additional license).
See the full Live 11 release notes (although it sort of buries this information) and everything new in Max 8.5.4 (which is now the bundled version in Ableton Live)
The platform portability matters. Maybe you have an idea that you want to run for yourself, or distribute to others, across multiple devices or environments. Maybe you want it to be a Eurorack module, but also make a full interactive demo for the Website. Maybe you want a Max for Live device that users of the new Push standalone can also run. Or a VST plug-in. Maybe you’ve got some students building for Raspberry Pi. You get the idea.
And yes, RNBO isn’t the only tool that can do this, but that’s also the point – this ability to think across devices is becoming the (pleasant) new normal. If you prefer free tools, there are other options. It’s not really about any one tool – I was just poking into Csound’s JavaScript tutorials. (And that’s all free, in case you can’t afford a RNBO license.) There’s RUST Audio, Heavy compiler. For plug-ins, for instance, you’ve got Csound and Cabbage, FAUST, and for Pd alone, plugdata, Camomile, PD Pulp … That’s not a very good list, but you get the idea.
But there’s no question that Cycling ’74 and Ableton are creating a really nice environment for their platforms, and it’s great to watch it evolve. I’m especially curious to see how they handle distribution options, including on the Push platform.
