[PD] Pd, Max/Msp, Reaktor, Plogue Bidule... How do these, compare?

[Matteo Sisti Sette]

Marco Donnarumma <devel at thesaddj.com> wrote:
 > I personally think there is nothing to >compare. All of them are quite
 > separate environments, and i mean not only >computing capabilities,
 > flexibility and GUI, but above all each community >supporting the
 > projects.

Well I think Max and PD _are_ quite comparable; their domains do overlap 
quite a lot, though of course they are not identical.
And though it is absurd to state that one is plainly better than the 
other, it _is_ reasonable to discuss in which aspects one is better and 
in which others the other is. Especially for the sake of improving PD 
until it _is_ just plainly better :))

Then the answer to the original question (i.e. the subject) is: Pd 
rules, all the others just suck - just kidding here.


By the way I once collaborated with a guy who composes electroacustic 
music and now is doing a Ph.D. at Harvard University (I made some Pd 
patches for a piece he wrote), and he was fond of Pd, preferring it over 
Max mainly because it is Open Source etc. So when he went to Harvard and 
everybody there uses Max, he still was willing to keep using Pd and keep 
learning Pd. At the end, he told me he decided to give up and start 
using Max; and not because everybody does (this guy generally is not 
scared of being on his own) but because of documentation. He said: with 
Max you just download tutorials, manuals and the like and you just have 
to study and you learn; with Pd it is not so. He often felt stuck and/or 
frustrated.

I don't think Max is easier to learn than Pd; i really think they are 
equally difficult (or equally easy) to learn (though this is more a 
guess than an opinion, since I don't know Max enough). But this doesn't 
seem to be a unique case: I heard quite a lot of people saying they find 
it easier to learn Max. So I think it is a matter of documentation.

Though it may be as well a matter of personal "taste" (just the "look 
and feel" of an application may make you feel more or less confortable).


-- 
Matteo Sisti Sette
matteosistisette at gmail.com
http://www.matteosistisette.com