About
Download the Proceedings and Programs here.
Pure Data (Pd) and Max are graphical programming environments for audio and video. They were originally authored by Professor Emeritus Miller Puckette (UC San Diego). Pd is open source, and Max is developed by Cycling ’74, now a subsidiary of Ableton. David Zicarelli is the founder and CEO of Cycling ’74 and the head of development for Max.
Independent artists to industry experts use Max and Pd as part of their regular practice. Their graphical programming environments also make them excellent pedagogical tools for teaching programming, algorithmic composition, sound design, digital signal processing, and more. Universities around the world include Pd and Max in their curriculum.
Pd has an ad hoc conference, the PdCon, convened through grassroots initiatives by its community. In 2025, Pd is approximately 30 years old. Max is approximately 40 years old. In light of these milestones, PdMaxCon25~ is a more inclusive Pd-Con to accommodate the addition of the Max community.
Miller Puckette and David Zicarelli are the keynote speakers. The conference includes research presentations, musical events, demos, and workshops. Submissions were selected via double-blind peer review.
Special thanks to the following folks supporting PdMaxCon25~, allowing us to run it free from registration fees and open to the public:
Illinois NCSA; Grainger College of Engineering ECE department; College of Fine and Applied Arts School of Art and Design; and for matching funds from the Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts
All events are free and open to the public.
Schedule
Subject to change. Reflects concert order
FRIDAY EVENT LOCATION
Friday Evening Installations
| Michael Schumacher | Living Room Pieces | Foyer of Gallery Art Bar |
| Tak Cheung Hui, Xiaoqiao Li, and Chun Ting Vincent Chan | Rings… Through Rings | Siebel Center for Design (SCD) 1000 |
| Nicolas Ward and Tom Davis | Small Voice | Analog Wine Library |
| Dolunay Solmaz | This is not a strange loop. | SCD 1002 |
| Jared Tubbs | All Together, All Apart | EMS |
| Qi Shen | Bioluminescence | SCD Media Studio |
8:30-9:30 AM Paper Session 1 MB0359 “Fishbowl”
Chair: Ivica Ico Bukvic
| Alexandre Porres | Modular EuroRacks Dancing Along for Pd |
| Eric Lyon | Four FFTease Haiku |
| Jaime Oliver La Rosa | Entraining to Emergent rhythmic patterns using audio delays on Pure Data and Lilypond |
9:45-10:15 AM Paper Session 2 MB0359
Chair: Christopher Dobrian
| Marcel Wierckx, Tony Roe and Hidde de Jong | Tinmendo: New Directions for Jazz Improvisation with Max and Smartphone Interaction |
8:30-11:30 AM Workshop 1 MB2334
| Dan Wilcox | Introduction to Zirkonium3: ZKM’s Sound Spatialization Environment |
1:00-2:30 PM Concert 1 MB Auditorium
| Kerem Ergener with Josh Graham, Nicki Roman and Bernard Scully, ensemble | In Praise of Shadows |
| Jeff Kaiser | Rainy Days and Robots |
| Kevin Swenson and Craig Jordan | scriptedDialogues |
| Teerath Majumder and James Ilgenfritz | In and Out of Phase |
| Margaret Schedel with Kyle Hutchins, saxophone | Metanoia |
| Alexey Logunov with Chris Herz, violin | Unknown Worlds |
| Steve Ashby | A not so distant past |
3:00-4:30 PM Concert 2 Smith Recital Hall
| Jean-Francois Charles and Ramin Roshandel | Jamshid Jam |
| Richard Dudas and Tina Tallon, violas | Fantasy/Duel for Violas and Computer |
| Sean Bailey | GENERIC |
| Pak Hei Leung | #ABetterMe |
| Jeremy Muller | Radio Swan for maracas and electronics |
| James Dooley | formuls |
| Bryce Heesacker (F. C. Zuke) | Silence is Deathly Painful |
5:00-6:30 PM Concert 3 MB Auditorium
| Barry Moon and alejandro acierto |
Double Music 2025 |
| Mei-Ling Lee | Summoner |
| Hongshuo Fan | Shadows’ Resonance |
| David Bird | Gradient Field |
| Paul Hembree | Des Wahnsinns sanfte Flügel |
| Emiliano del Cerro | Cracked Neck |
6:30-7:30 PM Reception MB South Lobby
9:00-11:00 PM Late Night Concert 1 Gallery Art Bar
| Zeynep Özcan | Customs and Borders |
| Brad Decker | Loophole |
| Jeff Kaiser and Seth Davis | Duo Cataclysma |
| Jeff Albert | “Is That What I Said?” for Improviser and Computer |
| Amogh Dwivedi | Bildungsroman: i) traintrip; ii) yo pierre!; iii) lemonrinse |
SATURDAY EVENT LOCATION
All Day Installations
| Michael Schumacher | Living Room Pieces | Foyer of Gallery Art Bar |
| Tak Cheung Hui, Xiaoqiao Li, and Chun Ting Vincent Chan | Rings… Through Rings | SCD 1000 |
| Nicolas Ward and Tom Davis | Small Voice | Analog Wine Library |
| Dolunay Solmaz | This is not a strange loop. | SCD 1002 |
| Jared Tubbs | All Together, All Apart | EMS |
| Qi Shen | Bioluminescence | SCD Media Studio |
8:30-10:00 AM Paper Session 3 MB0359 “Fishbowl”
Chair: Henrik von Coler
| Brian Lindgren | An Augmented String Instrument Architecture Created With Pure Data |
| Ivica Bukvic, William Furgerson, Bradley Davis and Justin Kerobo | 15 Years of L2Orkin’ Around with Pd-L2Ork |
| Jeremy Hyrkas, Pablo Dodero Carrillo and Teresa Díaz de Cossio Sánchez | Preserving Russek’s “Summermood” Using Reality Check and a DeltaLab DL-4 Approximation |
10:15-11:45 AM Paper Session 4 MB0359 “Fishbowl”
Chair: Jaime Oliver
| Henrik Forssell | Simulating FM Radio Transmissions in Max/MSP |
| Neal Anderson and Sanjay Majumder | KeyLink: A Real-Time Music Data Synchronization Framework for Networked Music Performance |
| Jaehoon Choi | The Media Materiality of Max: Rhizomatic Organology and the Genealogy of Abstractions |
8:30-11:30 AM Workshop 2 MB0358
| Nick Hwang, Anthony Marasco, Eric Sheffield, Anna Weisling and Jeff Herriott | Collab-Hub for collaborative network performance with PD and Max |
1:00-2:00 PM Keynote 1: Miller Puckette Smith Recital Hall
2:30-4:00 PM Workshop 3 MB0358
| Miguel Moreno | Livecoding Electronic Music in Pure Data: Techniques and Tools |
4:30-5:30 PM Keynote 2: David Zicarelli Smith Recital Hall
6:00-7:00 PM Concert 4 MB Auditorium
| Momilani Ramstrum | Starting Here |
| Dylan Findley and Andrew Hosler | A Real Buster |
| Tina Tallon | excision no. 2: they didn’t know we were seeds |
| Jason Geistweidt | _hex_series_1 |
9:00-11:00 PM Late Night Concert 2 Gallery Art Bar
| Miguel Moreno | Mike Moreno DSP Electronic Music Live Set |
| Dan Wilcox | robotcowboy |
| Alexandre Porres | Patch Shop Boy |
SUNDAY EVENT LOCATION
Sunday Morning Installations
| Michael Schumacher | Living Room Pieces | Foyer of Gallery Art Bar |
| Tak Cheung Hui, Xiaoqiao Li, and Chun Ting Vincent Chan | Rings… Through Rings | SCD 1000 |
| Nicolas Ward and Tom Davis | Small Voice | Analog Wine Library |
| Dolunay Solmaz | This is not a strange loop. | SCD 1002 |
| Jared Tubbs | All Together, All Apart | EMS |
| Qi Shen | Bioluminescence | SCD Media Studio |
8:30-9:30 AM Paper Session 5 MB0359 “Fishbowl”
Chair: Jeremy Hyrkas
| Christopher Dobrian | Techniques and Software for Octophonic Composition |
| Zeyu Yang and Henrik von Coler | Zerr~ Autogenous Spatialization in PD and Max |
10:15-11:15 AM Special Session: David Zicarelli, Max in Education MB0359 “Fishbowl”
8:30-9:30 AM Demos MB0358
| James Dooley | formuls, an experimental synthesis-based touchscreen electronic musical instrument for live performance and composition |
| Simon Ellerbe | Live Control of Effects Parameters Based on Player Motion Using PureData and MovementOSC |
10:00-11:30 AM Workshop 4 MB0358
| Alexandre Porres | Modular Synthesis Techniques with MERDA |
1:00-2:30 PM Concert 5 MB Auditorium
| Ann Stimson with Patti Cudd, Marc Ainger, ensemble | SNAP |
| Lauren Sarah Hayes | The Accusations That Are Confessions |
| Aaron Hynds | Post-prae-ludium No. 1 ‘per Donau’ by Luigi Nono |
| Lucas Marshall Smith with Ruben Høgh, piano | As all the Heavens were a Bell |
| Cecilia Suhr | Prism of Distortions |
| Andrew Watts | Power Chords for 4 Channels |
3:00-4:30 PM Concert 6 Smith Recital Hall
| Mir Jeffres | LULL |
| Brad Decker | Out of the Ground (Into the Sky) |
| Anthony Cammarota | What Was That, Greta? |
| Eric Mandat | Folded Gyroid |
| Patrick Long | Oddball Abstract |
5:00-6:30 PM Concert 7 MB Auditorium
| Marc Ainger with Ann Stimson, Alto Flute | Music for Alto Flute and Computer |
| Henrik von Coler | Zerräumlichungsstudie |
| Antonio Russek, arr. Jeremy Hyrkas, Sasha Ishov, Teresa Díaz de Cossio Sánchez and Pablo Dodero Carrillo | Summermood |
| Yoonjae Choi and Zora Yo, cello | Chant for cello and live electronics |
| Travis Garrison | Wave Trains |
| John Gibson | In Summer Rain |
| Alex Christie | 27b/6 |
Travel and Location information
Airports:
The cheapest thing is to fly into Chicago (O’Hare – ORD or Midway – MDW) and then take the Peoria Charter bus (https://peoriacharter.com). If you are staying in downtown Champaign, you want Illinois Terminal. If you are staying closer to the music building, then you want the ISR stop. You will need to take a car or bus to hotels from your stop.
There is a Champaign airport (CMI), but flights to this airport are typically expensive, and you’ll have to take a taxi or car to your hotel.
Taxis:
There are no taxi companies in Champaign-Urbana. You have to use Uber or Lyft for taxis.
Hotels and venues:
Here is a handy Google Map that shows the locations of hotels (both near bus lines and not) and the location of venues. Note that some installation venues will be added later: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit?mid=1SYkT9Z48VVCMZO5fwB1-5UBuWwGxc9U&usp=sharing
Google Maps is very accurate for bus routes and times, but if you’re interested, more information can be found at mtd.org. Buses within the campus area (I-zone) are free. Buses outside the zone are $1. Buses require exact change in cash. Or, you can download the Token Transit app and get day passes for the buses.
Organizing Committee
Our committee consists of:
Kerry L Hagan, Chair
Eli Fieldsteel, Research Chair
Jake Metz, Music Co-Chair, Installations Co-Chair
Sharath Chandra Ramakrishnan, Installations Co-Chair
Nathan Mandel, Facilities
Xavier Davenport
Maxwell Miller
Felipe Hoyos-González
Jeff Martin
Stephen A Taylor
Marco Trevisani
For all queries, please contact kerry@illinois.edu