I've been tryinging to learn MAX for the last couple months. Building simple synth is cool, but I've stalled out. It looks like my local community college offers a class, so I'm hoping to get some more intentional learning in beyond YouTube videos.
I WANT to make workflow improving devices for Ableton (Max for Live). But it is SO HARD to get used to the graphical programming. And the JavaScript option isn't very solid.
I'm a programming professionally but it feels like I am starting over when I'm working on Max devices.
have you looked into supercollider? or Csound? they are more like programming languages and are likely to be more up-your-alley if the graphical programming thing is an obstacle... they are also both free software im pretty sure.