Max Mathews (Al Bregman )


Subject: Max Mathews
From:    Al Bregman  <al.bregman@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:44:38 -0400
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

Hi all, I'm sorry to be the bearer of sad news but our friend and colleague, Max Mathews, passed away on April 21, 2011, at the age of 84, a victim of pneumonia. Max was an inspiration to all of us, with his collegiality, his competence and creativity which were still going strong when he was in his eighties. Max was best known for the development of synthesis software based on the notion of unit generators, which could be patched together by the user to create arbitrarily complex sounds and sound patterns extended over time. Working at Bell Labs, he developed a series of powerful software systems, Music 1, Music 2, Music 3, etc. based on this idea. The MAX software system, authored by Miller Puckette, a powerful and popular graphic implementation of the unit generator concept, was named after Mathews. William Henke's MITSYN is another graphic-oriented system for signal processing that makes use of Max's idea of unit-generators that can be patched together to achieve signal processing -- analysis, synthesis, modeling and editing. Googling "Max Mathews" will bring you to some biographies that describe his career and his various inventions. Best to all, Al ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert S. Bregman, Emeritus Professor Psychology Department, McGill University 1205 Doctor Penfield Avenue Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 1B1. Office:  Phone: (514) 398-6103, Fax: (514) 398-4896 http://webpages.mcgill.ca/staff/Group2/abregm1/web/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------------


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