Reddit mentions of Electronic Music and Sound Design - Theory and Practice with Max and Msp - Volume 1 (Second Edition)

It's trivial to mix multiple audio streams in real-time with Max. You can just feed all your outputs into a single input of a DAC with inline *~ objects whose right input accepts a multiplier to control gain. There are lots of more sophisticated way to do it.

These books have a lot of info on this topic as you get more advanced.

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Sound-Design-Practice/dp/8890548452/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422140884&sr=8-1&keywords=electronic+music+max+msp

I think most of the Norris plugins are in audio unit format, he also has a bunch of interesting looking max devices which I still have to dive into :)

>Yes, I remember reading the same thing. Perhaps what he meant was just to turn off the grid in ableton?

Thats probably how he did it, I doubt he writes the entire track with the grid off - probably either sketches it out with it on, and then adds elements with it off, or keeps a few audio tracks on grid throughout and writes the rest around it. But then again Burial supposedly didn't use a grid at all for a lot of Untrue.

The most helpful thing I've come across for learning max (after doing the built in tutorials to learn the basics), is this book by Alessandro Cipriani Electronic Music and Sound Design. I bought the max 7 version on iBooks, its about the same price and has video examples built into it. Also the dude837 tutorials are fantastic, but he often doesn't explain what he's doing properly which is a bit annoying if you're starting out. John Jannone's tutorials are also pretty great.

If you are interested in Max/MSP, this book is pretty good for hands on learning using Max's synth tools.

http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Sound-Design-Practice/dp/8890548452#

I know Max is more expensive than what you said you were looking for originally, but with Max you can make your own instruments and plugins.

This book and the second volume are pretty great: https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music-Sound-Design-Practice/dp/8890548452/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483643697&sr=8-3&keywords=Electronic+Music+And+Sound+Design

They flip flop back and forth between a chapter explaining the theory behind a particular aspect of synthesis or music production and then a chapter explaining how to apply that knowledge using Max/MSP. Max isn't for everyone, but the theory bits alone in here are great, and IMO max is a good environment to learn this stuff at a lower level.