1 Published in Proceedings of the 1992 International Computer Music Conference, San Jose, California FollowPlay: A MAX Program for Interactive Composition Todd Winkler Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) Stanford University Todd@CCRMA.Stanford.Edu ABSTRACT FollowPlay is a program for interactive music and a real-time environment for music composition. The program consists of a large, comprehensive collection of MAX objects organized into three functional types: Listener Objects analyze and record numerous aspects of a musician's performance, Composition Objects create MIDI data to send to synthesizers, samplers, or signal processors, and Interpreter Objects unify the entire collection with a score program and an intuitive user interface. The proliferation of reliable interactive computer music systems has created an opportunity for performers to directly influence computer music processes. FollowPlay is a computer program for interactive music and a real-time environment for music composition. It was originally conceived as a way for musicians to communicate their highly refined interpretative skills to a computer, and elicit similarly musical results from it. Through their gestures, performers influence highly flexible compositional algorithms that are subtly responsive to musical nuances. These algorithms create MIDI data used to control synthesizers, samplers, and signal processors. The program consists of a large, comprehensive collection of software modules, written in the MAX programming language. The modules are organized into three functional types: Listener Objects analyze and record numerous aspects of a musician's performance, Composition Objects create MIDI data to send to synthesizers, samplers, or signal processors, and Interpreter Objects unify the entire collection with an intuitive user interface and a score program that acts as the "brain" of the program, handling all inter-modular communications.