Sense
Touch-sensitive copper sensors sit on top of the existing saxophone keys and read the player's fingering.
ACOUSTIC SAXOPHONE × MIDI
One sax.
More voices.
MAX/SAX adds touch-sensitive MIDI control to the saxophone you already play—so a single horn can voice chords, drive synths, build bass lines and control a DAW while its real acoustic sound stays completely intact.
A DIY hardware + software project by saxophonist Colin Gleason.
𝄢
M7
m7
sus7
MIDI
OUT
OUT
MAX/SAX doesn't replace the saxophone with a digital wind controller.
It turns the real saxophone into a controller.
THE IDEA
Play the horn.
Control everything else.
Translate
An Arduino-compatible microcontroller sends that performance data into Max/MSP, where the fingering becomes MIDI.
Shape
Foot pedals select chord quality and inversion in real time—from major and minor sevenths to sus, diminished and augmented voicings.
Expand
Send the result into a DAW such as Ableton Live. Comp on Rhodes, add bass, trigger drums or move into synth textures—all while playing sax.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
Hear MAX/SAX come alive.
This 90-second prototype demo shows the concept working. The project is still in active development, with standalone and browser-based RNBO versions planned.
WHY MAX/SAX?
Not another
windsynth.
Electronic wind instruments can give saxophonists familiar fingering and MIDI control. But they ask the player to swap the saxophone for an electronic instrument.
MAX/SAX takes the opposite approach.
The sensors sit on the keys of a traditional saxophone. The horn still speaks acoustically, with its own reed, body and tone. MAX/SAX simply gives that performance another path outward.
OPEN-ENDED BY DESIGN
Built to be built.
The project's original subgoal is ambitious: keep the electronic parts below $50 and make MAX/SAX a DIY hardware/software kit. Soldering and assembly are part of the experiment.
INPUTReal saxophone keys
SENSINGCapacitive copper touch sensors
PROCESSINGArduino-compatible MCU + Max/MSP
CONTROLCustom chord & inversion pedals
OUTPUTMIDI → DAW / instruments
NEXTRNBO standalone + web demo
A DECADE OF ITERATION
From a Max patch to a playable instrument.
First MAX/SAX chord function.
Max programming, visuals, circuit bending and physical computing.
The physical saxophone controller becomes the focus of sustained R&D.
First Arduino patch successfully reads touch sensors on a tenor saxophone.
Pedal control, software refinement, RNBO and live performance development.
FOLLOW THE EXPERIMENT
A saxophone was never supposed to do this.
That's the point.
Talk to Colin ↗