Live. Max. Max For Live. What is it Good for?

In 2001, the revolutionary Ableton Live software gave birth to a new way of creating and performing electronic music. Ableton Live’s production of endless repetitions of hypnotic beats became a huge success, especially among dance music producers. However, the academic music world has remained highly skeptical, as Abelton Live is not believed to be ideal for a seated audience listening to carefully crafted details. The modular and infinitely personal structure of a framework like Max/MSP has been a long-term standard tool in academic computer music, but Live and Max seem to cater to a very different audience. What happens when those two worlds become more integrated?