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Max Fundamentals - Electronic Art and Design

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1. n 13 AAUIEIDUEeS cusa acre er ueceaes o ea eet ee tae s 14 DN TE WB ol as Sener tu a ML M c ta MeL E t LI MN EE teta E 18 Mess ge Ordet e 19 AVN BTCC ses che cM MAD An M dA LL Er M ue 21 Max Wind OW osea as ved Ee E dete ncn EA ta petat Aunt AERES 22 Patchers VW TOW cease ts EEEE A ET ites toc aca C Le A ca Lei 22 New Object MT D I 25 TUAM HO omens a e LAUD LM Md pa MM Lu E 26 Table M AICO Wise ete eruta oe o t ee etis 26 Timeline MIO ose e doe Ls Rg lo dac s cie a Let et eU 27 Max Documentss aee rete t rte Need re eere Rota 27 Max Preferen Ges etse nea ete tdem euet ulna a ee 29 IVAN PUR c RR 30 Processing MIDI essei ori R IURE TOR DIR SFO erTi EEEIEE QNA HON RU NA HIER 30 TELS p RIO aD 33 Menus Explanation of Commandis 4 c eeeee eren e eene neret retorno tosta etas eae ta stas ta sena saae 11 Tile MIGriboe esee cse o E susat E A E NN 11 PET Mei sees eo gta ecu LE cte E e a t LU Loca Mut Me 14 Nata dani MO DDR 17 Object Ment scum de dt sia thea cepacia hee ibus tfo LR dtu oen adl bat ue 19 Font Mets aeos temet ette ee 23 Options Menu sepeser aeaa ri pens bonae ue soea See En e ba bolle oes n pot P Hc RO RON AP RN Ate 23 Trace Mentera ranri a 30 AN IHESU AA T PE ac A AM EM dE MEE A Ld 31 Extras Ment eee ERE en ee EE deerit 32 Con
2. What is Max Max is a graphical music programming environment for people who have hit the limits of the usual sequencer and voicing programs for MIDI equipment Miller Puckette Max reference manual 1988 Max was conceived in 1986 as a project for producing interactive music at IRCAM Institut de Recherche et de Co rdination Acoustique Musique in Paris The original author was Miller Puckette Max became a commercial product from Opcode Systems in 1991 with further development by Puckette and David Zicarelli Cycling 74 became the publisher of Max in 2000 Since that time Max expanded to include audio data with the introduction of MSP and image matrix data with the introduction of Jitter Max lets you control your equipment in any way you want You can create applications for composing improvising and ordering or modifying media anything you can imagine doing with a computer Because Max turns all control information into a simple stream of numbers you can patch anything to anything else Max provides you with a high level graphical programming language Programs are written using graphical objects rather than text This reduces the need to learn a lot of arcane commands and syntax and it provides a clear and intuitive way to write programs simply by connecting objects to each other Max takes care of all the low level programming tasks for you It will trigger events at any arbitrary time in the future inter
3. 20 File Preferences 27 file search path 27 29 filtering MIDI messages 30 Find Next 17 Find 16 Fix Width 19 float 13 18 Float Display Correction 27 font characteristics 24 30 Font menu 24 foreground object in a Patcher 22 Index fraction 18 Get Info 21 grow bar 24 Help 33 Help Menu 33 Help 33 hexadecimal number 19 Hide Background 18 Hide Connections 18 Hide Foreground 18 Hide Object Palette 18 Hide Subwindows 32 Ignore Click 22 Imageburger 21 import a graphic 15 inlet 10 Inspector Get Info 21 Install 20 installing external objects 14 17 int 13 18 invisible objects and patch cords 22 IRCAM 3 list 13 offscreen windows 32 Lock Background 19 locking and unlocking a Patcher window 18 Max documents 12 Max Object List 17 Max Preferences 29 24 Max window 22 32 Max Window at Startup 27 message 13 order of messages 19 quick reference 15 tracing 31 Meterin 33 Meterout 33 MIDI reference chart 24 transmitting and receiving 30 MIDI channel 39 specifying 34 Core MIDI Macintosh Windows and MIDI Windows 27 MIDI interface connection 7 MIDI message 23 MIDI objects 30 23 34 MIDI output device default 8 28 Midi Setup 7 MIDI Setup Dialog 8 MIDI Setup window 28 Midi Setup 13 When Using Core MIDI 28 when using OMS 13 midiin 30 midiout 30 midiparse 31 MlIDlItester 33 Miller Puckette 3 millisecond 18 Mousemeter 33
4. Overview You can also check on the value of any individual attribute using the Max message get followed with no space by the name of the attribute you want to know about The resulting value is output by the object as a message beginning with the attribute s name sent out the object s right outlet Using this message you can discover the current value of an attribute even if you never set the attribute in the first place getloop set autopattr mypatch lautoname 1 pattrstorage playit For more information on attributes and the way they are used in specific objects see the Max Reference Manual pages for the pattr pattrstorage pattrhub autopattr and patcherargs objects Numbers Max distinguishes integer numbers from decimal numbers with a fractional part Integer numbers in Max are a data type called int and decimal numbers are a data type called float When a number is converted from float to int by Max the fractional part of the float is chopped off truncated rather than rounded up Thus when the number 4 1 is converted to an int it becomes 4 Likewise the number 4 999999 becomes 4 when converted to an int When you write programs that deal with MIDI information you ll generally use ints When dealing with audio information you ll probably use more floats MIDI data is always expressed in terms of ints in Max Time is usually expressed in terms of milliseconds in Max which can be either int or floa
5. OHE cA RATKAS A 21 Overview The Max Application Max Window When you open the Max application you ll see the Max window first This is the place Max prints out messages to the user eo Max 1990 2002 Cycling 74 IRCAM After you launch Max you may see a few messages from some external objects that were loaded during the startup process Any error messages or warnings generated while you are editing or running a program will appear in the Max window As you re debugging the programs you write you can have Max print out exactly what is flowing through the patch cords at any given moment to see if your patch is working properly For more information on printing in the Max window see the Debugging chapter in the Max Topics Manual Patcher Window Once the Max application has loaded you begin programming by creating a new Patcher window by choosing Patcher from the New submenu of the File menu or by opening an already existing patch with the Open command in the File menu Programs are written in Max by placing objects in a Patcher window and connecting them with patch cords to make patches Once you have created the patch you can run it and ensure that it actually does what you want it to do You can save the patch as a Max document to run or edit again later 22 The Max Application Overview A patcher window is either locked or unlocked When it is unlocked you can
6. Your Max distribution also includes a set of tutorials and manuals for using Java for Max development If you are interested in programming in the C language to extend Max download the Max MSP SDK from the Cycling 74 web site www cycling74 com If you are new to Max we suggest you begin by reading the Setup and Overview sections of this manual then trying a few of the tutorials You can also learn by looking at the help files in the max help folder located at C Program Files Cycling 74 MaxMSP 4 5 max help on Windows or Applications Max4 5 max help on Macintosh and and by browsing the Max Object Thesaurus and some of the expository chapters in the Max Topics Manual Manual Conventions The central building block of Max is the object Names of objects are always displayed in bold type like this Messages pieces of information that are passed to and from objects are displayed in plain type like this In the See Also sections anything in regular type is a reference to a section of this manual the Max Tutorial the Max Topics manual or the Max Reference Manual Introduction Other Resources for Max Users The help files found in the max help folder provide interactive examples of the use of each Max object The Cycling 74 web site http www cycling74 com provides the latest updates to our software as well as an extensive list of frequently asked questions and other support information Cycling 74 runs an i
7. name of an object 11 Name 21 New from Clipboard 11 New Object 35 14 New Object List 25 16 adding names to 17 notein 30 number 18 object box 11 Object Contextual Menu 34 Object Mappings 21 Object menu 19 object message list 15 Object Palette 34 Object Quick Reference Menu 36 objects aligning 19 creating 14 Max Object List 17 MIDI 23 34 name of 11 Index New Object List 16 width of 19 25 Open as Text 12 Open 12 Options menu 24 order of messages 19 outlet 10 Overdrive 24 Page Setup 13 Paste 14 Paste Picture 15 Paste Replace 15 patch 22 patch cord 11 segmented or straight 26 Patch Cord Contextual Menu 34 Patcher window 22 11 creating 11 locking and unlocking 18 Performance Options 30 port 34 specifying in Max MIDI objects 34 35 when not using MIDI Manager 34 Preferences 29 Print 13 protocol of MIDI messages 23 quick reference message list 15 Quickrecord 33 quit Max 14 real time 3 sending MIDI to other programs Macintosh 31 Recent Message 35 Recent Object 35 Replace 17 Replace All 17 Replace and Find 17 Respond to Click 22 Restore Origin 19 40 Resume 17 right to left 19 save a file as text 13 save a Max document 12 Save As 12 save file as collective 13 select all objects in the active window 15 Send to Back 22 32 serial port 7 Set Breakpoint 31 Set Default Color 35 Set Origin 19 Show on Lock 22 simu
8. MIDI Setup application found in Applications Utilities to specify the ports interfaces and MIDI devices in your MIDI setup On Windows all MIDI devices which are installed correctly on your system and appear in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties Start Settings Sounds and Audio Devices are available to Max MSP for MIDI I O Setup MIDI Setup Dialog If you choose Midi Setup from the File menu you will be presented with a window showing you the Input and Output devices available eoe MIDI Setup CO On Input Device Abbrey Offset On Output Device Abbrev Offset to Max MSP 1 2 9 to MaxZ MSP 2 B M AU DLS Synth 1 from Max MSP 1 from Max MSP 2 QTMA Synth 1 System Setup Auto Setup poop EB Max s MIDI Setup dialog box is used to assign abbreviations and MIDI Channel Offsets to each of your Input and Output Devices in your MIDI Setup The on off toggle is used to enable or disable a MIDI input or output The abbreviation is for your convenience You may wish to specify a specific device in creating a Max MIDI object and it s much faster to type the letter b than Kurzweil 1000PX The Channel Offset is used to distinguish MIDI devices by their MIDI channel For example a Channel Offset of 16 sets an MIDI Output Device to receive MIDI on Channel 1 when you specify channel 17 in Max Setting the Channel Offset for a MIDI Input Device lets you determine the source of a MIDI message For example if
9. Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows when placing a new object box in the Patcher window See the Objects chapter of this manual for details about the New Object List window Auto Fix When Auto Fix Width is enabled the width of an object or message box is Width automatically adjusted each time you edit the text inside it The box is changed so that all the text fits on a single line You can do this to any selected text box manually by choosing Fix Width from the Object menu Some examples of Fix Width are shown below 127 2000 makenote 127 2000 makenot e 127 append is the append is the current preset 2000 current preset Auto Fix Width on Auto Fix Width off Width fixed by hand 24 Menus Explanation oj Commands Segmented Patch Cords Assistance When Segmented Patch Cords is not checked you can draw a patch cord between two objects simply by dragging with the mouse from the outlet of one object to the inlet of another object The procedure for drawing patch cords differs slightly when Segmented Patch Cords is checked First you click on the outlet of one object then click at each of the points where you want the patch cord to bend then click on the inlet of the other object The shape of a segmented patch cord can be adjusted afterward by dragging on one of the segments with the mouse INN Straight patch cords Segmented patch cords If you make a mistake while drawing a seg
10. This submenu features 16 preset colors that can be applied to a number of user interface objects and patch cords You can change the colors by choosing Edit Colors in the Options menu Assigns a variable name for an object in a patcher window that can be used in a script This name is not the same as a name for a table or coll object it is local to a Patcher window and can only be used with script messages to the thispatcher object For more information see the Scripting tutorials in the Max Tutorial Replaces an instance of a Max object or patcher with a graphic image To assign a graphic image select an object and choose this menu item A dialog box will appear that allows you to choose the graphic you want to use 20 Explanation oj M enus Commands Hide on Lock Make the selected objects and patch cords invisible when the Patcher window is locked which reduces the cluttered appearance in a patch Note that user inter face objects that are hidden will not respond to mouse clicks Select MIDI Channel Belect WIDI Channel Some objects and cords hidden Nothing hidden ShowonLock Set the selected objects and patch cords to be visible when the Patcher window is locked undoing the action of Hide On Lock Bringto Front Bring the selected objects to the front of their current layer within the Patcher window If a user interface object such as a dial or a ubutton is partially obscured by another object or a picture on top
11. active Patcher window is locked and its user interface can be operated Locking and unlocking the active window by holding down the Command key on Macintosh or Control key on Windows while clicking in white space within the window has the same effect as choosing Edit from the View menu Macintosh versions also include a transparent rectangular pill on the right side of the window that can be used to toggle between locked and unlocked Patcher states Hide Object Palette Hide the palette of objects at the top of an unlocked patcher window When the object palette is hidden this menu item changes to Show Object Palette which when chosen makes the object palette reappear 17 Menus Explanation oj Commands Hide Connections Hide all patch cords in an unlocked patcher window Hide Connections also unselects any selected patch cords so that they can not be deleted while connections are hidden When all patch cords are hidden this menu item changes to Show Connections which when chosen makes all patch cords reappear Since any patch cords that are not marked as hidden reappear when you lock the patcher the purpose of this command is to move patch cords out of the way for precise editing or positioning of objects Hide Imageburgers Hide any images associated with objects known as imageburgers restoring Hide Foreground Hide Background Lock Background Set Origin the standard object box text view To set an object s image
12. input and output port If you click on the Auto Setup button Max will automatically assign IDs and channel offsets in a reasonable configuration Specify paper size paper orientation and printing options before printing If the patch you wish to print exceeds the bounds of the paper you can reduce the image by specifying a percentage of reduction Print the contents of the active Patcher or Text window Menus Explanation oj Command Install Quit Edit Menu Undo Cut Copy Paste Clear Duplicate Install Max external objects When the Max application is opened it installs external objects in the max startup folder Other external objects can be installed later with Install However if an external object is in Max s search path you can just type its name into an object box to install it Windows only in File menu On Macintosh the Quit item is in the Application menu Quit Max If you have any unsaved windows you ll be asked if you wish to save changes to the windows Undo the most recent editing change in an unlocked Patcher or Text window Editing changes that can be undone in a Patcher window are Undo Cut Copy Clear Paste Replace Fix Width Align Hide on Lock Show on Lock Bring to Front Send to Back Ignore Click Respond to Click Include in Background Exclude from Background changing an object s font and size and moving an object In a unlocked Patcher window table editing wi
13. menu is checked 32 Menus Explanation oj Commands Contextual Menus in the Patcher Window When you Control click inside a Patcher window on Macintosh or Right click on in a Patcher on Windows you ll get a pop up menu that lists different items depending on what you click on There are three basic menus one for clicking on objects one for clicking on patch cords and one for clicking on blank space In addition Control clicking on Macintosh or Right clicking on Windows on the object box and message box icons in the Patcher window s palette display the Recent Object and Recent Message submenus described below for the Blank Space Contextual Menu Object Contextual Menu This menu contains items from the Edit Object and Help menus In addition some objects such as bpatcher js and mxj add items to the bottom of this menu See the manual page from the Max Reference Manual or the MSP Reference Manual for the object you selected for a description of the items it adds to this contextual menu Patch Cord Contextual Menu This menu contains items from the Object menu that are applied to the currently selected patch cord Blank Space Contextual Menu Object Palette This menu contains items from the Object menu as well as a number of items specific to this context described below This submenu displays all the icons for user interface objects in the Patcher window s object palette Choosing one creates a new object of the ty
14. pattr pattrstorage pattrhub and autopattr use attributes Attributes are another way to specify the behavior of Max objects and are found and used widely in Jitter an extension to Max and MSP that allows you to work with matrix based data including video and OpenGL If you already own or use Jitter you will be familiar with how they work This section will provide an explanation for users who have not encountered attributes You can use attributes to initialize change and find out the current values stored in an object and the attachment of each value to a fixed attribute name means that you don t need to remember the ordering typed in arguments or what each inlet in a complex object does Future versions of Max MSP will implement attributes for Max MSP objects much more widely As with arguments you can type attributes into an object box along with the object s name or you can set and retrieve attributes using Max messages after the object is created Typed 14 Overview The Max Application in attributes are set in object boxes by using the symbol followed by the name of the attribute and one or more arguments which could be any kind of Max data ints floats symbols or lists You can enter as many attributes as the object recognizes in any order after the object s name autorestore 1 autopattr mypatch lautoname 1 Hautorestore U You can type in attributes or set them using Max messages N
15. select the object and choose Imageburger from the Object menu Then use the Object Image window that appears to assign a picture file to the object When imageburgers are hidden this menu command changes to Show Imageburgers which when chosen makes object images reappear Hide objects that belong to the foreground layer in a Patcher window All objects in a Patcher are by default in the foreground layer unless they are included in the background by choosing Include in Background from the Object menu This command hides only objects not patch cords It is intended to make it easier to edit or position objects in the background layer When foreground objects are hidden this menu command changes to Show Foreground which when chosen makes the foreground objects reappear Note that if hidden foreground objects will not reappear when the Patcher window is locked Hide objects that belong to the background layer in a Patcher window All objects in a Patcher are by default in the foreground layer unless they are included in the background by choosing Include in Background from the Object menu This command hides only objects not patch cords It is intended to make it easier to edit or position objects in the foreground layer When background objects are hidden this menu command changes to Show Background which when chosen makes the background objects reappear Note that if hidden background objects will not reappear when the Patcher window i
16. symbol A symbolis a word or other non numeric collection of characters Many symbols are meaningful commands when received by certain objects The exact symbols understood by each object are listed in the Objects section of the Max Reference Manual For example the seq object a sequencer for recording MIDI performances responds to messages received in its inlet such as Start stop record delay and print All of those messages would be meaningless to an object like multiply which expects only numbers or bang in its inlets anymessage A message can in fact consist of any combination of words and numbers Some objects can handle any type of message Most objects however expect to receive one of the above types of message and will not understand other messages When an object receives a message it doesn t understand it will either ignore the message entirely or will print an error report In many cases Max even stops you from making such mistakes while you are editing a program As you connect an outlet of one object to the inlet of another object Max does its best to analyze what message will be traveling through the patch cord Max won t let you connect an outlet to an inlet that won t understand the message If an inlet is not highlighted when you try to connect a patch cord to it Max will not make the connection Attributes In version 4 5 and later a few Max MSP objects notably mxj and the pattr family of Max objects
17. the receiving object and that object s output will be sent next The messages will continue triggering other objects until a message is sent that triggers no other action then Max goes back to the original sending object and sends its next message 20 Overview The Max Application In the example below note that steps 3 4 and 5 are all performed up to the point where no further message is triggered before the message is sent to the left inlet of the object 5 The pitch is added to it and p 4 The result is the new result 4 divided by 2 is sent out 7 The transposed piteh is revom bined with the velocity and channel and r WODI mote is transmitted E Windows Max has six main window types Patcher Text Table Timeline the Max window and the New Object List You can open as many of the first four types of window as you like but there is only one New Object List and one Max window Other objects such as env and movie open their own windows On Windows each Max window contain the standard icons for minimizing maximizing and closing the window Macintosh windows contain the standard icons for closing a window sending it to the dock and minimizing maximizing the window EC Ha Macintosh versions also include a transparent rectangular pill on the right side of the window that can be used to toggle between locked and unlocked Patcher states Untitled ES
18. which lets you type in a description of that inlet or outlet When you use your object inside another patch the Assistance messages will appear when the mouse is placed on the object box s inlets or outlets The way a computer stores floating point numbers means that not all numbers can be represented This means that you will often see values such as 2 3 displayed as 2 29999 When Float Display Correction is checked Max rounds numbers and truncates them at what it guesses is the least significant digit Show the Max window when the Max application is opened Unchecking this option keeps it hidden until you explicitly open it by choosing Max from the Windows menu Macintosh only When checked this option asks QuickTime to preview all files in the standard open file dialog even those for which preview information does not exist This may mean significant delays when creating previews for large graphics files Uncheck this option if you are working with many large graphics files that do not contain preview information When you choose Save As or use Max object s save file dialog to specify the location of a file the last place you visited is typically shown by default The Save Dialog Shows File Location option when checked shows the directory containing the file you are going to save if it has already been saved If the file you are going to save has not yet been saved the setting of Save Dialog Shows File Location has no effect
19. you need to enclose the entire name in double quotes Max s file search path is the list of folders that will be searched when Max looks for documents The Cycling 74 folder a folder that serves as a global repository for plug in versions of Max used within other application or multiple versions of Max that you may be using is searched before any of the locations specified in the search path It is located in the Drive Library Application Support folder on Macintosh or in the C Program Files Common Files folder on Windows The file search path proceeds as follows 1 the folder that contains the most recently loaded patch including a patch that is in the process of being loaded 2 the folders specified in the File Preferences dialog 3 the folder that contains the Max application Opens a window that displays a series of parameters that will allow you to fine tune Max event scheduling audio and graphics performance to suit your needs Click the About buttons next to each option to learn more about how it will impact performance Opens a window that displays and explains options for selecting text in a patcher window Each option setting is described by a Quicktime movie showing how the Patcher behaves Select Text on Click when enabled immediately enters edit mode when you click on an object box message box or comment box It visually selects the text in the box If Select Text on Click is disabled the entire box is
20. 0 9F 1001xxxx Key Velocity noteout Number Poly polyin 160 175 A0 AF 1010xxxx Key Aftertouch Pressure polyout Number Control ctlin 176 191 BO BF 1011xxxx Controller Controller Change ctlout Number Data Program pgmin 192 207 C0 CF 1100xxxx Program Change pgmout Number Aftertouch touchin 208 223 D0 DF 1101xxxx Aftertouch touchout Value Pitch Bend bendin 224 239 E0 EF 1110xxxx Bend LSB Bend bendout MSB 24 MIDI Overview System Messages Function Objects Status Byte 2nd Byte 3rd Byte Decimal Hex Binary 0 127 0 127 System sysexin 240 FO 11110000 Mfr ID Arbitrary Exclusive midiout Number Song Pos midiin 242 F2 11110010 Position Position Ptr midiout LSB MSB Song Select midiin 243 F3 11110011 Song midiout Number Tune midiin 246 F6 11110110 Request midiout End of Sys sysexin 247 F7 11110111 Ex midiout Clock rtin 248 F8 11111000 midiout Start rtin 250 FA 11111010 midiout Continue rtin 251 FB 11111011 midiout Stop rtin 252 FC 11111100 midiout Active midiin 254 FE 11111110 Sensing midiout System midiin 255 FF 11111111 Reset midiout 25 MIDI Overview Control Changes Function Ctl Num Values Continuous Controllers MSB 0 31 0 127 Modulation Wheel 1 0 127 Breath Controller 2 0 127 Foot Controller 4 0 127 Portamento Time 5 0 127 Data Entry 6 0 127 Mai
21. I 23 MIDI MESSA ges eb M 24 GontroPC FT ES s einser ini tarte lint e hides ies BS hve oct EEEE RR Pa 26 Using MD fesses 27 Using MIDI s uds anaes aaas tiet dud itai pee UH DRE E eaa Ee Ees 27 Using the MIDI Setup WindoW sss ssssserssesseresesseresssseeesssseressssereeessrreeeseteeessrteeessrreressrreeesseeet 28 Default Devices for MIDI Objects Labels eso ioo ata nln ete iiit logus 29 Easy Default pM 29 Using the DES Synthese esso etre dre idit epo PR edt lina olt bU pude 29 Greating d obfer e RO DEPO DROP DRIN eb det OR S d 30 Deleting a POrt insedit nibo aore teo o testa det ino tos ils i Rt Re 30 Loading a DLS Bank type 1 or 2 aep eituepintio ro etie ttis beatessdesanuerbewieticeenien 30 Loading the Default GM Banlke s soos aol neni 31 Turing Reverb Omand Off ace nen opo ipee nte dnt tae 31 Setting MIDI Output Latency midi dm only sees aT Virtual Input and Output Devices on Macintosliusscoettn teer tette eerstncton 31 Adding Virtual MIDI POE iiri piverone iebes een ieia ies veea stanton 32 Ports How MIDI Ports Are Specified iiis esie nte etur i ere Pe Pon Lone Qe te v rp DEEP e been INT uio rente dud 34 NL SVL OD CCE assesering aieeaa rossa tutos poses enfoca od een 34 Specifying MIDI POS annann nn da IS E D LE MEL DN MICE 35 The port Message osa seeen aae aas NN Ees DATES NN ERE UL eai 35 Specifying Ports conc om s LI ML DM M M LM MELOS 36 Introduction
22. If MSP is installed opens the DSP status window for changing Max MSP audio settings See the Audio Input and Output chapter of the MSP Tutorial manual for more information 26 Explanation oj M enus Commands Colors You can apply color to a number of Max objects and patch cords using the Color submenu of the Object menu The Colors command opens a window that edits the palette of colors used in this menu Color Selection Edit Color To edit a color select one of the fifteen colors on the palette You will see the selected color displayed on the right using the color swatch and you will see an RGB color listing for the selected color Change the selected color by either moving the swatch cursor around in the color space or by typing the RGB value for the color you want Object colors in all open patchers are updated when you close the window 27 Explanation oj M enus Commands File Preferences Opens a window for setting the Max file search path the folders that will be searched when Max looks for documents by name Startup Folder max startup Choose Help Folder max help Timeline Action Folder i ction folders inside these folders will be searched patc hes Choose exte ma b Choose exampes Choose Other Folders Choose Choose Choose Choose Choose Path List Print Current File Paths in Max Window When the Max application is opened it loads all external objects and patche
23. MIDI objects the most They filter the raw MIDI data coming into Max and output only the vital information For example the notein object looks only for MIDI note on messages and when it receives what it is looking for it outputs the key number the velocity and the channel number Similarly the bendin object looks only for incoming pitch bend messages and sends out the amount of pitch bend and the channel number Other specialized MIDI input objects are ctlin for control change data polyin for polyphonic key pressure data touchin for aftertouch data pgmin for program change data rtin for real time messages and sysexin for system exclusive messages Each of the specialized MIDI objects that receives channel voice messages has a transmitting counterpart which receives numbers from other Max objects and uses those numbers as data for transmitting specific MIDI channel voice messages The specialized MIDI transmitting objects are noteout polyout ctlout pgmout touchout and bendout Processing MIDI Once MIDI data has been received by the MIDI objects it can be modified and manipulated by other objects in Max Max has many objects designed specifically to handle MIDI data The midiparse object receives numbers from midiin analyzes the type of MIDI message and 30 Overview The Max Application routes MIDI channel voice data out specific outlets The seq object is a simple MIDI sequencer that records a sequence of data receive
24. Max Application Introduction This chapter briefly describes the Max application and introduces basic terms that will be used throughout the manuals If you have relatively little experience with computer programming or MIDI you might not immediately understand everything you read in this chapter Never fear The chapters in the Max Tutorial will cover topics in much greater detail starting from square one Max is a complex application and we don t expect everyone to get everything immediately This overview will simply familiarize you with the application and its basic elements Programming With Objects When you work with Max you ll be developing applications graphically using objects which will appear on your screen as boxes that contain either text or icons You connect objects together to create a working program Capture and display incoming pitehbend ILeiiages A simple program written graphically in Max Max has about 200 different objects and MSP adds about 200 more for audio processing and Jitter adds an addition 140 objects for matrix and video image processing each of which performs one or more specific tasks In addition you can write your own program in Max save it and then use that program as an object inside other programs that you write Overview The Max Application You create a Max program in a Patcher window which works much like a drawing program You select an object from a palette then click whe
25. Open Open Recent Open as Text Close Save Save As Open an existing Max document Max automatically determines the proper type of window in which to display the document Patcher Table Text or Timeline Displays a submenu of opened and save files to save you time in opening a file you have work with recently Force Max to open an existing document in a Text window for editing Any Max document or plain text file can be opened with this command Close the active foreground window If changes have been made to the document since it was last saved Max will ask you if you want to save those changes Save the active document The values stored in number box objects and other storage locations are not saved with a Patcher document Max doesn t save the values that are stored in data objects such as table coll or funbuff within a Patcher unless the Save With Patcher option is set for those objects although you can use the pattr family of objects to save the state of Max patches When you save an Untitled document Max automatically uses the Save As command so that you can rename the document When saving a patch for the first time it is possible to protect it from future modification by holding down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows while clicking on the Save button in the dialog box This renders the file uneditable when it is opened in the future Before you close the file however you c
26. Preferences are recalled each time the Max application is opened When Overdrive is enabled Max gives priority to timing and MIDI processing over screen drawing and user interface tasks such as responding to mouse clicks This will often yield more accurate event timing but may preempt screen drawing tasks Note The Overdrive command and the Enable command in the Trace menu are mutually exclusive Allow any window to respond to the mouse without first being brought to the front Normally when All Windows Active is not enabled only objects in the frontmost window can respond to mouse clicks and clicking on a window in the background brings it to the foreground With All Windows Active checked objects in a background window will respond to the mouse but you 23 Explanation oj Menus Commands must click in the title bar of a background window or choose its name from the Windows menu to bring it to the foreground Regardless of the setting of All Windows Active you can only type numbers into a number box if it is in the foreground window Keystrokes on the computer keyboard will be sent out of the outlets of key and keyup objects in any loaded patch or subpatch regardless of the setting of the All Windows Active option New Object When New Object List is enabled Max shows a complete list of available Lit obects whenever you create a new object box To override seeing the New Object List window temporarily hold down the
27. UTER TIT IMS mA 4d y i Fundamentals Version 4 6 7 August 2006 Copyright and Trademark Notices This manual is copyright 2000 2006 Cycling 74 Max is copyright 1990 2006 Cycling 74 IRCAM l Institut de Recherche et Co rdination Acoustique Musique Credits Content David Zicarelli Gregory Taylor Cover Design Lilli Wessling Hart Graphic Design Gregory Taylor Table of Contents Copyright and Trademark NOGFICBS ooo dedo qo od debe ergeben 3 Credits mori n Rd RIP RIMI M xm EID M LI ED LOS 3 Introduction eere TET M a 3 Whati MaX n caesos mti ero ro dto Te teet SR n at Nen dut 3 How To Use The Matuals 4 5 os deco aive eee ret Un eri tg ive egenos 4 Manual Conventions c ao ede rota ee He a op eva e ec a 5 Other Resources Tor Max USOT Se oso ird e i ets Do p idt es dlc pu PEE duds 6 SQUUD me 7 MIDI Setup Dialog itin tides es cutis tuu do Era Me edel COD ede MH CHE tekos ske ennas 8 Overview The Max Application score tror etr pU NE Pete p PU pe PE E EEUU EN RE INA MR DEEP DURS siita 9 TMT OCUICHIO Ma erste eek en ui e tee E M c Mr Mee E cA T 9 Programming WV Iti CLS aate mese bentes eet de plas dst etd deb ep i 9 Normal Objects and User Interface Objects sassescsssiseivssssesinnsidonssnosnvssotbadvenessorssentosnstoes 11 Prid cT 12 ADI e
28. an still edit it and save it again without this edit protection Save the active document in a separate file with a different name The document is saved under the new name and the document with the old name is closed unchanged 12 Menus Explanation oj Commands By default most files are saved in Max Binary format which loads most quickly and takes up the least disk space You can also save a file in Text format A pop up menu in the standard Save As dialog box allows you to choose Save As Save As MyBaaadPatch Where gt Documents n I Max binary file Format EA Frac zal 3 Cancel Build Collective Application Plug In Midi Setup Page Setup Print Save the active document along with all other files necessary for it to function as a single collective file plug in or standalone application For more information on the collective save dialog see the Collectives topic Configure Max s MIDI connection to the outside world The MIDI Setup dialog box is presented to you the first time you use Max From then on Max remembers your setup in the Max Preferences file and are recalled each time the Max application is opened You should assign your various MIDI devices to specific ports using the Audio MIDI Setup application The MIDI Setup dialog in Max then allows you to give each port an abbreviation a letter a z and assign a range of MIDI channels to each
29. ate affz when flush receives a bang it sends aut the pitches for which it hasn t received a note off aut the lett outlet each preceded by a O aut the right outlet nates off Mate this same task can also be accomplished with bag or Borax but flush is more useful in can junction with mtr In an unlocked Patcher you can also open the Help file for an object by selecting the object and then choosing Help from the Help menu You can open Help files from the New Object List by holding down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows while you select the object s name from the list If you still have questions about an object look up the object s complete description in the Objects section of the Max Reference Manual For help with other Max topics consult the other chapters of that manual or look up your topic in the Max Object Thesaurus or the Index 33 File Menu New New from Clipboard Menus Explanation of Commands This set of pulldown menus lets you create new Max windows The submenu options are described below Patcher Create a new Patcher window Table Create a new Table window to make a table by drawing in values Text Create a new Text window to enter values in a text file or simply to use as a note pad Often values can be entered most efficiently by typing them in as text For example a table file can be created just by typing the word table followed by a space separated list of values O
30. ck the message box 29 Using MIDI Here is a list of messages that you can use to access the DLS synthesizer Creating a Port SM createoutport lt portname gt lt drivername gt where drivername is midi_dm on Windows and augraph on the Macintosh portname is the name you assign to the port For example SM createoutport myOtherSynth midi dm SM createoutport myOtherSynth augraph Deleting a Port SM deleteoutport lt portname gt lt drivername gt where drivername is midi_dm on Windows and augraph on the Macintosh portname is the name of your choice For example SM deleteoutport myOtherSynth midi dm SM createoutport myOtherSynth augraph Loading a DLS Bank type 1 or 2 SM driver loadbank filename lt portname gt where filename is the name of an existing DLS bank file and portname is the name of the port that will use this bank If portname is omitted all DLS ports will use the bank On Mac OS X the folder Library Audio Sounds Banks is added to the search path when looking for a DLS bank file 30 Using MIDI Loading the Default GM Bank SM driver loadbank 0 lt portname gt Turning Reverb On and Off SM driver reverb 1 0 lt portname gt By default reverb is off in both augraph and midi_dm Setting MIDI Output Latency midi_dm only 3 SM driver latency lt time gt lt portname gt where time is a value in milliseconds and portname is the port that is set to this val
31. d from midiin and can play it back later even changing the speed A multi track sequencing object mtr can record many separate tracks of data then play them back either simultaneously or individually The detonate object is a complex multi track sequencer with a graphic editing window and score following capability To format numbers into well formed MIDI messages there is a midiformat object which prepares MIDI messages then sends them to midiout to be transmitted out from Max The borax object analyzes note on data received from notein and sends out information regarding the duration of notes the time between note ons how many notes are being held at any given moment how many notes have been played etc Both borax and the poly object are capable of assigning voice numbers to the notes that pass through them and poly can steal voices and provide note off messages to turn off notes that are being held The stripnote object filters out note off messages note on messages with a velocity of 0 received from notein passing on only note on messages with a positive velocity The makenote object is like the reverse of stripnote It adds note offs after note on messages generated within Max then sends both the note ons and the note offs to noteout for transmission To help avoid stuck notes the objects bag flush and midiflush keep track of the note ons they have received and can be used to turn off any notes for which they have not yet received
32. e of the objects rather than the objects themselves Paste Picture creates an object called vpicture in the Patcher window vpicture has no messages arguments or output For more flexible picture handling save the picture as a file and load it into the fpic object Replace the currently selected objects in an unlocked Patcher with the object on the clipboard This command is only enabled if you have copied a single item to the clipboard It can be very useful for updating the settings of a group of objects Create a subpatcher containing the selected objects in a Patcher For more information see the Encapsulation topic in the Max Topics manual If a subpatcher is selected in a Patcher De Encapsulate will replace the subpatcher with the objects it contains For more information see the Encapsulation topic in the Max Topics manual 15 Menus Explanation oj Commands Find Open a window for finding a string of characters in the active window Find searches for a certain word or words and optionally replaces them with other words This is especially useful in either Text windows or Patcher windows that contain many instances of the same word or words In Patcher windows Find operates on object boxes message boxes and comments Haplaca With Find Replace Fi nd amp Raplaca L wrap L Replace Arguments LJ Multi Replace All Searching in patcher Node Warrior The Find dialog has two main text e
33. ed throughout the manuals and tells you how to use online help Elements of Max Contains information on menu commands keyboard shortcuts and Max objects Max and MIDI Contains information on the MIDI software protocol receiving and transmitting MIDI using Max with CoreMIDI Macintosh or MME Windows The Max Tutorial takes you through a step by step course on how to program with Max An instructive program written in Max found in the Max Tutorial folder accompanies each Tutorial The Max Topics contains discussions on issues of programming data structures loops encapsulation debugging graphics making standalone applications etc and explains specifically how those issues are handled in Max Introduction The Max Reference Manual should be referred to as needed for detailed information on specific Max objects Max Objects Contains precise technical information on the workings of each of the built in and external objects supplied with Max organized in alphabetical order Max Object Thesaurus Consists of a reverse index of Max objects alphabetized by keyword rather than by object name Use this Thesaurus when you want to know what object s are appropriate for the task you are trying to accomplish then look up those objects by name in the Objects section The document Javascript in Max describes support for the Javascript language and is intended to supplement the two Javascript chapters in the Max Tutorial
34. edit the patcher by moving objects around creating new ones and connecting objects together When it is locked you are operating the patcher by clicking on objects such as sliders that do things The lock unlock state of the window is indicated by the presence of the patcher palette at the top of the window If you see the palette then the window is unlocked There are several other ways you can lock or unlock a patcher e Choose Edit from the View menu or type Command E on Macintosh or Control E on Windows e Command click on Macintosh or Control click on Windows on the white space in the Patcher window e On Macintosh there is a transparent rectangular pill on the right side of the window that can be used for toggling between locked and unlocked state Untitled k When you create a new Patcher window it will already be unlocked To place an object in the window click on the desired icon in the palette FALUNS Fans 23 Overview The Max Application Then click in the Patcher window where you want to place the object Hke amp HoA ed S8 You can move one or more objects to a new location by selecting and dragging them with the mouse You can select objects for editing operations such as Cut Copy and Duplicate or if an object box contains text you can change its font or font size by using the Font menu You can also resize an object by clicking on its grow bar the tiny rectangle in the lower right c
35. endout a letter argument followed by a number argument indicates a port and a specific MIDI channel on which to receive or transmit MIDI messages For transmitting objects except midiout channel numbers are received in the rightmost inlet to change the channel Channel rum ber can b changed by number received in the right inlet A number alone can be used in place of a letter and number combination for such objects Numbers 1 16 specify a channel number on port a numbers 17 32 specify channels 1 16 on port b etc Numbers greater than 16 can be received in the right inlet to specify both port and channel When a letter argument is present however the port is fixed and channel numbers greater than 16 received in the right inlet are wrapped around to stay within the 1 16 range Will transmit on Will transmit on channel 13 port channel 13 port b teuchout 1 Letter argument transmits to only one port Otherwise number specifies both port and channel 34 How MIDI Ports Po rts are Spectftea The ports can also be assigned an arbitrary range of sixteen MIDI channels So for example port b could be assigned channels 1 16 and port a could be assigned channels 17 32 Specifying MIDI Ports notein Studio 1100 notein KISS Z nateout EZ F noteout Waveztation ATI MIDI ports may be specified three ways by device name letter abbreviation a to z or MIDI channel number Device nam
36. ernal user interface objects the wiring of the patch may get messed up when the patch is opened Trying to load a patch full of missing user interface objects that also contains embedded preset objects could result in a large stream of unhappy error messages in the Max window In order for Max to find external objects automatically they must be located in a folder specified in the File Preferences window To add folders choose File Preferences from the Options menu You can manually load external objects into the Max environment by double clicking on them or choosing Install from the File menu and using the standard Open File dialog to locate the external object file you want to install If you are in the process of developing an external object you cannot use Install to add a revised copy of an external object into the environment Max will continue to use the first object definition until you restart the application If you expect an external object to be loaded automatically only when it is referenced by loading a Max document that uses it or typing its name into an object box the name of the external object file must be consistent with the name of the object even though the name of the object is derived from the name of a resource inside the file 20 Externals Object Mappings Some Max MSP objects have names that contain characters that are reserved or have other meanings for certain OS file systems These Ma
37. erything from random number generation to video gesture recognition We maintain a web page devoted to listing sources for external objects at http www cycling74 com community Note that some third party externals are platform specific and they might not be available for a given platform If you develop externals in Java using the mxj object your objects will typically be cross platform as long as they do not depend on platform specific extensions to the Java language Note Before releasing a collective or application built with Max that uses a third party external object you should check to make sure that you are permitted to distribute it If there is no license or use information accompanying the object we strongly recommend that you check with the author of the object Max objects released under the GPL GNU Public License cannot be included in commercial software If you experience problems or crashes when using a third party external object you should contact the author of the object While Cycling 74 makes an effort to assist developers in creating external objects we do not provide support for them 22 MIDI Overview and Specification MIDI Messages A MIDI message is composed of a status byte which identifies the message type followed in most cases by one or more data bytes The most significant bit of data bytes is always 0 to distinguish them from status bytes whose most significant bit is 1 Except
38. es are used as arguments to MIDI objects in place of letters If your device names contain spaces you will need to include the name in double quotes The port Message All MIDI objects accept a message that changes the port they use to transmit or receive MIDI data The port message takes one argument which is the letter or device name associated with the port 35 How MIDI Ports Po rts are Spectfiea The word port can be omitted which is convenient for making a pop up menu with port names or abbreviations as shown below piskiavier 18 E2000 Andromeda i Trident Nord Lead The pop up menu can be created automatically by using the midiinfo object natenut a After receiving the port message the MIDI output object acts as if the port had been specified as an argument all MIDI channels above 16 wrap around to 1 16 and data is always sent on the specified port Specifying Ports Yet another way to set the port of a MIDI object is to double click on the object when the Patcher window is locked you ll be presented with a menu containing available MIDI ports You also have the option to choose All Devices by Channel if you want to be able to identify or specify different devices by means of channel number alone ECL All Devices by Channel Port B k to Max MSF 1 to Max MSP 2 36 How MIDI Ports Po rts are Specifiea See Also Using MIDI Using Max with MIDI 37 Index Abo
39. example patches demonstrating how each object works The Max Tutorial folder containing example patches to accompany the Max Tutorial sections of the Max Tutorial These patches are not essential to the Max application e The patches folder containing folders which hold Max editors and preference files editors the Inspectors used to set the attributes for some Max and MSP objects inspectors graphic images used for some UI objects picts and useful utility and guide patches extras e The tiAction folder for containing timeline action patches Note If you re using Max MSP there are some additional folders created for audio specific purposes Refer to the MSP documentation for information on these folders We hope you ll be using Max to create a variety of documents yourself e Patches you construct in the Patcher window These are the documents you will create most often they are working programs you have written in Max e Binary or text files containing data for such objects as coll funbuff mtr preset and table MIDI files saved by the seq or detonate objects e Script files describing envelope functions e Timelines and timeline action patches In order to keep track of all these documents Max lets you specify the names of folders that it should use when it looks for various files To name these folders choose File Preferences from the Options menu The File Preferences window displays the name of the im
40. f you give your patch a single word filename that doesn t begin with a number you can then use it as an object within another Max patch just by typing the filename into an object box For a more detailed explanation of Objects and related issues you can refer to the chapters titled Objects and Externals in this manual and the chapter titled Encapsulation in the Max Topics manual Arguments Often additional words or numbers are included in an object box after the object name to provide initial information to the object or to specify some of its characteristics The additional words are known as arguments to the object 12 Overview The Max Application When you create a metronome object metro for example you may type in a number argument after the message name to specify how many milliseconds the metronome should wait between ticks Tick even second metro 1o00 A few objects have obligatory arguments while others have optional arguments If you forget to type an obligatory argument into an object box Max will print an error message in the Max window advising you of that fact and will refuse to create the object If you choose not to type in an optional argument Max provides a default value for that argument The type of arguments that can be given to each object and their default values are detailed in the Objects section of the Max Reference Manual Messages What actually gets sent through the patch cords A me
41. face to MIDI and other communication protocols and perform useful logical operations Applications made with Max run in real time Because of its speed Max enables you to write programs that generate music instantly based on what you play or that modify your performance as you play Max is based on the C programming language Max provides a simple yet versatile high level graphical language which is itself written in C but will be easy to use for those familiar with almost any other programming language or even for those who have never programmed before For those who are fluent in the C language however Max can be combined with C code that you write So if there s something you need to do that Max can t do and Max can do a lot you can write your own Max objects in C The release of Max 4 5 further extends Max s capabilities by supporting Java and Javascript Introduction How To Use The Manuals The Max User s Manual consists of four volumes Fundamentals the Max Tutorial Max Topics and the Max Reference Manual This volume Fundamentals includes Setup Read this section first Tells you what equipment and System software you will need to use Max successfully how to connect your MIDI devices how to install the Max application and how to get technical support Overview Read this section next if you have never used Max before Contains a description of the Max application introduces basic terms that will be us
42. for System Exclusive messages the status byte specifies exactly how many data bytes will follow it System Exclusive messages are used for synthesizer patch dumps and parameter changes MIDI Objects Max MIDI objects extract the essential data from incoming messages so you don t need to know the details of the structure of MIDI messages These objects are listed in the table below describing each type of MIDI message Raw MIDI If you wish to deal with receiving and transmitting entire MIDI messages yourself you can use the midiin and midiout objects The midiparse and midiformat objects filter and format raw MIDI and sxformat can help in formatting system exclusive commands for transmission by midiout To help you in managing MIDI data in Max we have provided two reference charts here The first chart identifies the different types of MIDI messages and shows their format The second chart identifies controller numbers the second byte of a MIDI control change message that have been assigned a specific function 23 MIDI Overview MIDI Messages Channel Messages Channel Messages use the lower 4 bits of the status byte to indicate the MIDI channel of the message 0 is MIDI channel 1 and 15 is MIDI channel 16 Function Objects Status Byte 2nd Byte 3rd Byte Decimal Hex Binary 0 127 0 127 Note Off xnotein 128 143 80 8F 1000xxxx Key Release xnoteout Number Velocity Note On notein 144 159 9
43. fter the object name listed in the assistance area of the Patcher In the following example the dial has one prototype Dial 1 Prototype REED To access the prototypes when creating an object via the object palette hold the mouse button down momentarily A pop up menu listing prototypes will appear Choose one from the pop up menu and the newly created object will have the prorotype applied to it Object Box A quick reference list of the messages understood by a given object can be seen by Option Control clicking on the object in a Patcher window on Macintosh or Alt right clicking on the object on Windows Messages for slider int int float float mul Lin t Open slider help About This Henu Getting a quick list of messages understood by an object If a message requires additional arguments the type of argument is listed after it in parentheses Some of the messages are shown using a terminology internal to Max For example in1 refers 15 e Creating Objects in Objects the Patcher Window to an int in the first inlet to the right of the leftmost inlet Furthermore some messages shown in the quick reference message list are messages that Max sends to the object internally not messages that you should send to the object in your patch If a message appears in the quick reference message list but does not appear in the documentation it is probably not worth worrying about New Objec
44. he abbreviation allows you to type the letter instead of the device name as an argument to MIDI objects such as notein or noteout The channel offset is added to the MIDI channel of the incoming data to distinguish its device for MIDI objects set to receive from multiple devices or sent to multiple devices For example if a device is given a channel offset of 32 a note on message sent to Max will be output on channel 33 of a notein object Similarly if you send 33 to the MIDI channel inlet of a noteout object a subsequent int sent to the left inlet will produce a note message on MIDI channel 1 for the device whose channel offset is 32 28 Using MIDI Default Devices for MIDI Objects If you create a MIDI output object without specifying a device name the object transmits MIDI to the first device in the list of output devices in the MIDI Setup window A MIDI input object that is not assigned to a specific port i e one that does not have a MIDI device name or abbreviation as an argument will merge all input devices In that case the only way for a Max patch to determine which device is actually the source of input to these objects is to compare the incoming MIDI channel number to the MIDI channel offset specified for each device Since you may wish to treat all MIDI input identically regardless if its source this may be useful The midiin object is an exception to this behavior it receives data only from the first device in the inp
45. hes opened using the Extras menu are brought to the front by choosing their name from the Extras menu They are not listed in the Windows menu Adding Extras Gives you instructions for creating your own patches to the Extras menu Tips Gives you a quick list of shortcuts you can use while working in a Patcher window In the Max MSP installation the following items are included in the Extras menu Audiotester Lets you send a test signal out a desired channel Meterin Displays an input signal level meter Meterout Displays an output signal level meter MiDitester Lets you test your current MIDI input and output setup Mousemeter Gives you a quick readout of mouse position and lets you measure distances relative to a position you can set Quickrecord Lets you record your output to an audio file in the Max application folder Swatches Lets you edit UI objects with multiple colors quickly Help Menu Help Choosing Help when an object in an unlocked Patcher window is selected opens a help file describing that object You can get help on any object at any time by holding down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows and clicking on its box You can also Option double click on Macintosh or Alt double click on its name in the New Object List window You can also Option click on Macintosh or Alt click on Windows on any object s box in a locked Patcher to open a help file for that object if Help from Locked Patchers in the Options
46. imeline Window A Timeline is a graphic arrangement of Max messages to be sent to specific objects in specific patches at specific times The timeline can be played using the controls in the Timeline window or it can be played from within a patch that contains a timeline object Create a new Timeline window by choosing Timeline from the New submenu of the File menu or by typing timeline into an object box eao8 Untitled Majaa o 2 b pr re F o0 00 00 r 00 09 09 UI A T One Inch Four Seconds _ _ _ _ _ _ _ For more information see the Timeline chapter in the Max Topics Manual Max Documents Whenever Max tries to find a document automatically it looks first in the folder that contains the patch that s being loaded then it looks in the folders specified in the File Preferences window accessed by choosing File Preferences from the Options menu then it looks in the folder containing the Max application This searching order is known as the file search path There are many kinds of Max documents The Max application is accompanied by e The max startup folder containing external objects objects that are not contained within the application itself which Max loads into memory automatically when it starts up e The externals folder containing additional external objects 27 Overview The Max Application The max help folder containing
47. in Ob Jects the Patcher Window Enter keys on Windows and the new object will be created When you are in the New Object List window you can get help on the selected object name by holding down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows while you double click press Return Enter or Space If you want the New Object List to disappear to type in an object name yourself press the Delete Backspace key or click anywhere outside the New Object List The blinking insertion point will be placed back inside the object box so that you can type in the name To create a new object without even seeing the New Object List hold down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key on Windows as you place the object box in the Patcher window or uncheck New Object List in the Options menu Editing the Max New Object List The Max New Object List shows a complete list of available objects whenever you create a new object box You can customize the names in the New Object List adding your own names that you might type often The objects you add can be external Max objects or they can be your own patches you have created and saved as Max documents You can even create your own categories of objects or patches To add your objects to Max s New Object List you edit the specially formatted text files in the init folder located in the Library Application Support Cycling 74 folder on Macintosh or in the C Program Files Common Files Cycling 74 fo
48. intosh this folder is called Max 4 Preferences Folder and is in the Preferences folder inside the Library folder of your home directory On Windows this folder is called Max 4 Preferences Files and its location varies according 29 Overview The Max Application to the name of the user logged in e g C Documents and Settings user Application Data Cycling 74 Max 4 Preferences Files This is where Max stores settings you have chosen in the Midi Setup and File Preferences windows as well as the current settings of the Options menu In addition you can set a default font and font size for the Max window and subsequent new Patcher windows by using the Font menu while the Max window is the active window Those font characteristics will be stored in the preferences file MIDI Max has many built in objects for transmitting and receiving MIDI data to and from the ports available in your MIDI system Objects that transmit MIDI messages have no outlets since they send MIDI data out from the Max application Similarly objects that receive MIDI messages from the outside world get their input from MIDI devices rather than from other Max objects The midiin and midiout objects receive and transmit raw MIDI data one byte at a time without analyzing the MIDI messages at all These objects can then be connected to objects that record the MIDI data process it or play it back You will probably end up using the specialized
49. ith the text in the Replace field Repeat the most recent search performed with Find finding the next instance of the search string Replace the selected text with the replace string from the Find dialog box Replace the selected text with the text in the Replace field of the Find window then perform another search for the text in the Find field of the Find window Replace all instances of the text in the Find field of the Find window with the text in the Replace field of the Find window Itis possible to get Max working so hard and fast that it doesn t have time to respond to your commands For example if you have a number of timing objects such as metro sending out messages as fast as they can or if you have created a loop with little or no delay between messages Max may be too busy to pay attention to you Holding down the Command key on Macintosh or the Control key on Windows and typing a period stops Max s scheduler giving you time to turn off some of the overloading processes Choose Resume to restart Max s scheduler If you have a bug in your program that causes a Stack Overflow error such as connecting the outlet of an object in such a way that it indirectly sends input back into its own triggering inlet Max will stop its scheduler and notify you of the error After you have fixed the bug choose Resume to restart Max s scheduler When Edit is checked the active Patcher window can be edited When Edit is unchecked the
50. ive to the original objects If you then reduplicate the objects without deselecting them the new duplicates will be placed in the same position relative to the selection In an unlocked Patcher window you can also duplicate quickly by Option dragging on an object on Macintosh or Alt dragging on Windows which creates a copy of the object and lets you drag it away from the original In an unlocked Patcher window table editing window Text window or Timeline window this command selects all objects values or text that are not hidden i e It does not select foreground boxes if the foreground is hidden It does not select background boxes if the background is hidden It does not select patch cords if connections are hidden In an unlocked Patcher window Select All works differently from selecting all the objects by dragging around them with the mouse which selects the objects but not the patch cords The distinction is important if you want to hide all the selected objects and patch cords by choosing Hide On Lock from the Object menu You can select everything with the Select All command then exclude individual items from the selection by holding down the Shift key and clicking on them Paste a graphic image into a Patcher window from the clipboard Graphics can be made functional by placing the transparent button object ubutton over the image If you have copied objects in a Patcher window to the clipboard Paste Picture pastes an imag
51. lder on Windows The file contains a list of messages to max that are loaded when the application is launched If you d like to see the standard categories that the New Object List already uses you can look at the files max objectlist txt which contains the standard Max objects or audio objectlist txt which contains the standard MSP objects You can also create your own text file that contains your own new categories and object lists You can have as many text files in the init folder as you need Entries in a text file loaded into the New Object List look like this max oblist category lt objectname gt If the name of a category or object includes spaces or other special characters the name should be contained within double quotes max oblist My Special Objects mixmaster If the object you want to add to your New Object List is available for only Windows or Macintosh You can add system windows or system macintosh after the word max That way you 17 Creating Objects in Ob Jects the Patcher Window can use the same object list files on both platforms and you ll only see the objects available for the platform you re running Max on max system windows oblist Secret Weapons cantileverxp ext After editing the Max Object List file you need to restart Max before it will change the appearance of the New Object List window There are no restrictions on the category name but the object name will
52. les to create a single application 35 Objects Creating Objects in the Patcher Window Object Palette When the Patcher window is unlocked the object palette appears at the top of the window To create a new object in the Patcher window simply click on the desired icon in the object palette the cursor will change to that icon then click where you want to place the object When the Patcher window is narrower than the width of the icons in the palette the far right palette item in the window becomes an arrow Holding down the mouse button on the arrow causes the rest of the object palette to be displayed as a pop up menu The items in the pop up menu are displayed as icons on Macintosh or text on Windows Choose the desired object from the menu Note that as you move the mouse over different objects in the palette they are described in the Assistance area of the Patcher window Picture From PICT File Breakpoint Function Editor Signal Level Fader Graphic Switch Graphic Gate Hint Horizontal Slider Increment Decrement Keyboard Slider LCD x LED Matrix Control Signal Level Meter MultiSlider Macintosh Berane B s FS e If you choose the wrong object by mistake you can cancel by clicking on the blank area at the far left of the palette or pressing the Delete Backspace key Creating Objects in Objects the Patcher Windon If an object in the palette has any prototypes you will see the number of prototypes a
53. ll act the same way as if the object could not be found The name of the object will appear in an object box with gray lines at the top and bottom for a normal object or within a gray rectangle with the name in parentheses for a user interface object Some external objects may require the presence of additional software libraries For instance MSP external objects require a library called MaxAudioLib on Macintosh this library is built into the Max MSP and Max MSP Runtime applications If you see an error message in the Max window such as e error can t fragload objectname missing LibraryName function name you ll need to either obtain or enable the specified library in order to use the external object s Doing this isn t always a straightforward procedure some libraries may need to be placed into the Max application folder such as Cycling 74 s Jitter library while others might 21 Externals require an installation of software into your OS such as Apple s QuickTime libraries When in doubt consult the documentation for the external object s in question External Objects from Third Parties In addition to the objects that come with Max itself there are hundreds of external Max objects that are available from third party developers Some are included in commercial packages but most are free and available for you to include in non commercial applications You ll find many interesting collections of objects that perform ev
54. loses any subwindows that may be open Send Window Send the currently active window to the background behind all other open toBack windows Max Bring the Max window to the front or show it if it has been hidden Show Floating Opens a floating window that changes its contents to the Inspector for the Inspector currently selected object in the active unlocked Patcher window Since Inspector windows only operate on one object at a time the Floating Inspector window will hide its Inspector if you select multiple objects other The names of all other open windows are listed in the Windows menu Choosing a window name brings that window to the front making it the active window A diamond _ on Macintosh or an asterisk on Windows appearing to the left of a window s name indicates that it has been modified since it was opened and the changes have not yet been saved Choosing a window s name from the Window menu while holding down the Option key on Macintosh or the Alt key or Windows moves the window onto the main screen and resizes it to fit within the bounds of the main screen You can use this if you open a file whose window is partially or completely off the screen 31 Explanation oj M enus Commands Extras Menu The Extras menu contains the names of patches that you can use for reference or utility purposes You can add your own patches to this folder choose Adding Extras from the Extras menu for instructions Note that patc
55. ltaneous messages 19 size of objects grow bar 24 stack overflow 17 Step 31 subwindow 32 Swatches 33 symbol 14 table entering values as text 11 Table window 11 Text window 11 timeline 27 timeline editor window 11 Tips 33 Trace Enable Disable 31 Trace menu 31 triggering 19 truncation 18 undo the most recent editing change 14 user interface object 12 View menu 18 width of an object 19 25 Windows menu 32
56. mented patch cord you can get rid of the most recent segment by Option clicking on Macintosh or Alt clicking on Windows with the mouse Or you can get rid of the whole patch cord by Command clicking anywhere on Macintosh or Control clicking anywhere on Windows Although segmented patch cords redraw a little more slowly when selected or deselected they function exactly like straight patch cords and do not take up additional memory when the patch is loaded To make a segmented patch cord when Segmented Patch Cords is not checked hold the shift key down when clicking on an outlet Similarly to make a straight patch cord when Segmented Patch Cords is checked hold the shift key down when clicking on an outlet When Assistance is enabled the Patcher window gives you a running commentary about the function of each object s inlets and outlets when the mouse moves over an inlet or outlet The following example shows Assistance for the right inlet of the accum object accum Multiplies Current value by Input 25 Menus Explanation oj Commands Float Display Correction Max Window at Startup Enhanced File Preview Save Dialog DSP Status When you edit a patch to be used as an object inside other patches you can type in your own Assistance messages for your object s inlets and outlets Select an inlet or outlet object in your patch and choose Get Info from the Object menu You will be presented with a dialog box
57. n Volume 7 0 127 Balance 8 0 127 Pan 10 0 127 Expression 11 Extra precision for the above LSB 32 63 On Off Switch Controllers 64 95 127 and 0 Sustain Pedal 64 127 and 0 Portamento On Off 65 127 and 0 Sostenuto Pedal 66 127 and 0 Soft Pedal 67 Other 96 121 127 Data Entry Yes 1 96 127 Data Entry No 1 97 Channel Mode Messages 122 127 127 and 0 Local Control On Off 122 0 All Notes Off 123 0 Omni Mode Off 124 0 Omni Mode On 125 0 16 Mono On 126 0 Poly On 127 Using MIDI Using MIDI On Windows all MIDI devices which are installed correctly on your system and appear in the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties Start Settings Sounds and Audio Devices will be available to Max MSP for MIDI I O On Macintosh the OS X application Audio MIDI Setup located in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder is used to set up and describe your MIDI setup In addition to the standard MIDI drivers used to communicate with external MIDI gear coremidi on the Mac and midi mme on Windows there are additional MIDI drivers available for use midi adrewire This driver sends and receives MIDI from a ReWire host application when Max is a ReWire client augraph Macintosh This driver addresses DLS synthesizers built into the Macintosh platform s operating system midi dn Windows This driver addresses DLS synthesizers built into the Macintosh platform s operating system Max allows you to have multiple ac
58. n the Assistance area of the Patcher window as shown in the next example Just move the mouse over the inlet and descriptive text appears in the Assistance area delay Set Delay Time in Milliseconds Getting Assistance for the right inlet of the delay object 11 Overview The Max Application A few objects lack either inlets or outlets because they receive or send information from some where outside of the patch that contains them For example the midiout object has no outlets because it transmits values directly to MIDI midiownut print receive mag Other objects are user interface objects They look like buttons dials sliders keyboards etc and respond not only to messages received from other objects but also to clicking and dragging with the mouse They let you control the program by using the mouse and also provide a means of displaying numbers and other messages onscreen in a variety of ways The name of each object is displayed in the assistance area when the mouse rolls over them i dr dr dr p qme m S m em There are some objects such as comment that do nothing The comment object lets you put notes to yourself reminding you what you have done or notes to others telling them how the program works You can also use comment objects to label user interface items to tell other people how to use your program When you ve finished making your program you can save it as a Max document otherwise known as a patch I
59. nce such a text file has been saved it can be read by table objects in a patch A funbuff file can be created by typing the word funbuff followed by a space separated list of alternating x and y values Objects for which you might want to type in data in a Text window include coll env funbuff lib mtr seq table and Text Timeline Create a new Timeline window for creating a graphic score of Max messages After Patcher Table Text and Timeline a list of templates appears in the New menu Templates are Max patcher documents that open in untitled windows of preconfigured sizes They can include objects to get you started with a certain type of application To create your own template simple save any patcher file in the templates folder inside the patches folder inside the Max application folder Creates a Max patch containing the data currently stored on the Clipboard as text This menu item enabled if there is any text on the Clipboard If the text is a patcher it is treated as a file and a new patcher is created If the Clipboard contains part of a patcher e g a couple of Max obects a new patcher window containing the copied objects is created If the Clipboard contains text only a new Text window is created The resulting patch will appear in an untitled window A window created via New from Clipboard is set as modified so you will be reminded to save it when you close it or quit Max Menus Explanation oj Commands
60. nd have some distinctive graphical appearance in a Patcher External user interface objects should be placed in your max startup folder so their icons are available in the palette from the time you begin working Normal external objects can be placed in another folder in Max s search path and will be loaded as they are needed Normal external objects can provide access to non MIDI hardware devices and they may also implement capabilities not found in the basic set of Max objects such as the coll object that allows the storage and retrieval of arbitrary list structures indexed by numbers or symbols External user interface objects such as the Keyboard Slider kslider are important for constructing custom interfaces within Patcher windows Keep External Objects Where They Can Be Found Max needs to be able to find external object files when loading a document When an external object cannot be located you ll see the following error in the Max window e error objectname no such object Externals In the patcher you loaded you ll see an object box with gray lines at the top and bottom i e with no inlets or outlets with the name of the object in it if it s not a user interface object Borax If you load a patch that includes a user interface object that cannot be found you ll see a gray outline box that contains the name of the object in parentheses print there If you load a patch that contains references to missing ext
61. ndow or Timeline window Cut removes the selection and copies it to the clipboard When Cut is chosen when the Max window is active the text contents of the Max window is erased and text is copied to the clipboard In a unlocked Patcher window table editing window or Timeline window Copy copies the selection to the clipboard without deleting it When Copy is chosen when the Max window is active the text contents of the Max window is copied to the clipboard In a unlocked Patcher window table editing window or Timeline window paste the contents of the clipboard into the active window When you move objects from one Patcher window to another Max will paste the objects into the new window in the same position they had in the old window In a unlocked Patcher window table editing window or Timeline window Clear deletes the selection without copying it to the clipboard Pressing the Delete key on Macintosh or Backspace key on Windows has the same effect in most Max windows In an unlocked Patcher or Timeline window Duplicate makes a copy of the selection The duplicated objects are placed just below and to the right of the original objects and are automatically highlighted so that they can be dragged to the desired location After the duplicate objects have been dragged Max 14 Menus Explanation oj Commands Select All Paste Picture Paste Replace Encapsulate De Encapsulate takes note of their position relat
62. ng a name to save the settings of the selected object in a package called a Prototype Prototypes are useful for saving combinations of user interface object settings you plan to use often For example you can save color combinations you like or complex image file configurations used by picture based controls eost Save Prototype To save a prototype type in a name then click the Save button The prototype will then appear in the Prototypes submenu of the Object menu see below Prototypes are also listed in a pop up menu you obtain when holding down the mouse button when creating a new object Check the box labeled Include Data in the Save Prototype window if you want a preset containing the object s data to be saved with the prototype Typically you will not want to include the preset in a prototype Prototypes The Prototypes submenu of the Object menu will be enabled if there are prototypes saved for the type of object that is currently selected Prototypes are named combinations of settings such as colors and image files you can apply to user interface objects For example if a dial is selected prototypes for dials will be shown Choose a prototype by name from the Prototypes submenu to apply the settings of the selected object with the prototype settings Currently any data stored in the object such as the current value of a dial is lost when you apply a prototype 22 Menus Explanation oj Commands Fon
63. not create a valid object after being entered into an object box if it contains a comma or semicolon You can add arguments after names of objects if you want them entered to an object box Adding categories can be useful to provide you with the names of objects you access frequently To see all the categories use the grow box at the bottom right corner of the New Object List window to make the window tall enough to see all of your categories The size of the window is saved as a preference for the next time you create an object box and the expanded window size will be also used the next time you launch Max 18 Externals Extending the Capabilities of Max Two Kinds of Max Objects In various places in this manual you may see references to built in and external objects The differences are minor but important Built in objects are part of the Max application External objects are separate files that contain C code that can be linked into the Max environment in such a way that it is impossible to tell that the code was not part of Max in the first place That s why we rarely mention whether any particular object is a built in or an external in this manual In addition there are two kinds of Max objects e normal objects Max objects that appear in a Patcher window as an object box that contains its name or a character e g borax amp amp e user interface objects Max objects that appear as icons in the Patcher window palette a
64. note offs Max usually uses only 7 bit values numbers from 0 to 127 for pitch bend data and uses note on messages with a velocity of 0 to express a note off Max is capable however of recognizing and transmitting 14 bit precision pitch bend values and MIDI note off messages with release velocity using xbendin xbendout xnotein and xnoteout The above objects are specifically designed to handle MIDI data but since all MIDI values are just expressed as ints in Max they can be processed in any way imaginable The pipe object for instance delays all numbers passing through it by a certain amount of time Or the object can be used to add some number to a MIDI pitch value thus transposing the pitch The other sections in the manuals will show you a few of the many ways to process numbers in Max 31 Overview The Max Application MIDI data can be reassigned to have other meanings For example data from the mod wheel of the MIDI keyboard could be received with ctlin sent to makenote to combine the number with a velocity value and add a note off after it then transmitted by noteout as shown below This would let you play notes with the mod wheel 1 Receive channel number and control change Control dat omr cci cte data from controller Ho 1 mod wheel 2 Bend the numbers to FES 3 makenote pairs the pitch numbers with velocity makenote as Wakenote liz 50 value 112 then combines the same number with if they were
65. nternet mailing list where you can ask questions about programming exchange ideas and find out about new objects and examples other users are sharing For information on joining the discussion as well as a guide to third party Max related resources visit http www cycling74 com community Finally if you re having trouble with the operation of Max send e mail to support cycling74 com and we ll try to help you We d like to encourage you to submit questions of a more conceptual nature how do I to the mailing list so that the entire community can provide input and benefit from the discussion Setup System Requirements Installation and Authorization See the file Read Me Before Installing for the minimum system requirements installation instructions and authorization procedure Connecting MIDI Equipment Note This section covers the use of external MIDI gear with your computer If you aren t planning to use MIDI communication with Max you don t need to read this section 1 Make sure your MIDI interface is connected to the appropriate serial or USB port on your computer 2 Connect the MIDI Out of the MIDI controller s to the MIDI In of the interface to send incoming MIDI messages to Max 3 Connect the MIDI Out of the interface to the MIDI In of the sound source s to send output MIDI messages from Max 4 The Macintosh OS comes equipped with a built in MIDI system called CoreMIDI You can use the Audio
66. ntry fields one for the text you would like to search for and one for the text you would like to replace it with The checkboxes operate as follows If the Wrap option is checked Max returns to the beginning of the Text or Patcher window after it reaches the end and searches until it is back where it started When the Replace Arguments option is checked and the search finds an object message or comment box that begins with the text in the Find text field the Replace string replaces the entire contents of the text object When Replace Arguments is not checked the replace string will replace only the number of arguments in the replace string itself leaving the rest unchanged The Replace Arguments option has no effect in a Text window When the Multi option is checked Max searches through all open Patcher windows after exhausting the search in the Patcher window where you started your search The Find button performs a search on the text in the Find field but merely selects the text found if any The Replace button replaces the selected text with the text in the Replace text field The Find amp Replace button performs a search on the text in the Find field and if found replaces it with the text in the Replace field 16 Menus Explanation oj Commands Find Next Replace Replace and Find Replace All Resume View Menu Edit The Replace All button replaces all instances of the text in the Find field w
67. of it Bring to Front puts it in the foreground and allows it to respond normally to mouse clicks When a new object is created it is automatically made the frontmost object SendtoBack Send the selected objects to the back of their current layer of the Patcher window behind all other objects If an object sent to the back was covering any user interface objects they will now respond normally to mouse clicks Ignore Click Cause the selected user interface object s not to respond to mouse clicks when the Patcher is locked This attribute stays with any copies subsequently made of the object with the Cut Copy or Duplicate commands in the File menu If an object is set to Ignore Click and there is another user interface object behind that one the background object will receive the mouse click Respondto Undo the effect of a prior Ignore Click command restoring the selected user Click interface object to its normal way of responding to mouse clicks Indudein Place the selected objects in the background layer Objects in the Background background layer appear behind objects in the foreground layer even those on which the Send to Back command has been used In addition the background layer can be locked so that foreground objects can be easily edited on top of background objects 21 Explanation oj Men us Commands Remove from Remove the selected objects from the background layer Background SavePrototype Open a window for enteri
68. orner of the object The cursor will change to a two way or four way arrow when you are above the grow bar which is sometimes invisible As you resize the object the assistance window will show you the change in the size of the object and its current dimensions in pixels outlet Grow A Z3 Size A 38 Y 38 At any time you can lock the Patcher window and use your patch When the window is locked the object palette disappears and clicking on certain objects now operates them as parts of the user interface When you have finished editing your patch and have tested it to see that it runs properly save it by choosing Save As from the File menu The next time you open that Max document it will open locked and ready to use 24 The Max Application Overview New Object List When you add an object box the leftmost icon in the palette to a Patcher Max opens the New Object List window if New Object List is checked in the Options menu The window is divided into two columns The left column lists categories of objects and the right column lists the names of objects within the selected category All Ob jects l Control lam Data n Dev ices p Graphics l Interaction II Librarians 7 Lists UU Math amp Messages amp amp HIEI x MSP Analysis wv MSP De lays MSP FFT TU HSF Filters MSP Functions E MSP Generators i You can scroll through the list of objects and select one with the mouse or yo
69. ote that there is no space between the sign and the name of the typed in attribute you want to set The character tells the object to interpret the word attached to it as an attribute name instead of an argument value for a previous attribute Objects can have both typed in attributes and typed in arguments but the arguments must be listed first An additional and very useful feature of attributes is that you can ask an object with attributes to tell you about the attributes it knows about and what values it currently has stored for any given attribute 15 Overview The Max Application The getattributes message causes any object with attributes to output the message attributes followed by a list of all the attribute symbols that the object understands getattributes autopattr mypatch dlautoname 1 prepend set attributes L vol R vol loop set play toggle pattrstorage playit What attributes does an object have The Max Application Overview The getstate message dumps out all the attributes for the object as if every conceivable attribute query had been performed all at once Max 1990 2004 Cycling T4 IRCAM initializing JavaScript engine print Lal O 000000 print Rol 0 000000 print laap set 1 print play taggle 1 Finding an object s state You can then use route unpack and other Max objects to extract the attributes as you need them 17 The Max Application
70. pe you specify 33 Menus Explanation oj Commands New Object This submenu comprises a number of submenus that create a new object box and place some text in it The organization and contents of the submenus is identical to the New Object List window that appears when you create an object box when New Object List is checked in the Options menu Note Using the Object Palette and New Object submenus allows you to create objects in a patcher while the Object Palette is hidden choose Hide Object Palette from the View menu to do this You may find you like this method of creating objects better than using the Object Palette Recent Object Recent Message Set Default Color Paste From This menu contains the text of the most recently created object boxes in case you would like to create another copy of one of the boxes This menu contains the first part of the text of the most recently created message boxes in case you would like to create another copy of one of the boxes This submenu shows the Color submenu allowing you to choose a color other than black for newly created patch cords and objects This submenu lists all of the available Clippings A Clipping is a Patcher file that has been saved in the clippings folder inside the patches folder in the Max application folder When you choose an item from this menu the contents of the selected Patcher file will be pasted into the Patcher window with the
71. portant folders used by the program The startup folder from which external objects are automatically loaded when the application is opened is called max startup The folder for help files is called max help The timeline action folder where files used in timelines are stored is called tiAction You can specify six other folders and their subfolders for Max to examine when loading a file 28 The Max Application Overview This is the File Preferences window Startup Folder max startup Help Folder max help Choose Timeline Action Folder canal I o canal o 2 folders inside these folders will be searched pate hes Choose Fextermals Choose exampes Choose Other Folders Choose Choose Choose Choose Li Choose Path List Print Current File Paths in Max Window If a folder name begins with a dot slash it is a subfolder of the folder that contains the Max application Otherwise the name must start with the name of the volume disk drive which contains the folder By default Max will look for patches external objects tables and other files in folders called Jexternals patches and examples You can specify additional folders by adding their names in slots below these names Max Preferences Max remembers many of your working preferences by storing settings each time you quit the application The first time you use Max a folder containing your preferences is created On Mac
72. re you want the object to go Palette Create your program here An object Assistance area A Ob ject Box Objects are different types of boxes like this b Ee E Eel b M Objects have inlets at the top used to receive information from other objects X oN and outlets at the bottom used to send information to other objects 7 10 Overview The Max Application You connect two objects together with a patch cord Always drag from the outlet of one object to the inlet of the other When dragging a patch cord you can be anywhere inside the object box and the inlet will expand to indicate that you can release the mouse button to make the connection Inlet expanding to accept a patch cord Normal Objects and User Interface Objects The most common type of object is the object box which has two lines at its top and bottom The action performed by an object box depends on the name you type into it The name is like a verb describing what the object will do The name will either be a single word such as makenote or a symbol such as add or gt is greater than Typically objects send information out their outlets in response to information they receive in their inlets Each inlet and outlet of an object has a different purpose These are described in detail in the Objects section of the Max Reference Manual A brief description of the use of each inlet and outlet is available i
73. rt 31 active window 32 Adding Extras 33 Align 19 any window clicking in 24 argument 12 for specifying a MIDI channel 34 for specifying a port 34 Assistance 11 26 Audiotester 33 AudioUnit DLS synthesizer 8 28 Auto Setup 29 Auto Step 31 background object in a Patcher 22 bang 14 bendin 30 bent patch cords 26 Blank Space Contextual Menu 34 borax 31 bottom to top 19 Bring to Front 22 C programming language 3 Clear All Breakpoints 32 Clear Breakpoint 32 clear the selection 14 close the active window 12 collective Windows 13 Color 21 color of an object 21 Color palette 28 comment 12 configuring MIDI 7 Contextual Menus 34 Continue 31 copy the selection 14 Core MIDI default ports for MIDI objects 29 device abbreviations 28 device names 28 with other applications 31 38 virtual destinations Macintosh virtual destinations 31 virtual sources Macintosh virtual sources 31 creating a new object 14 cut the selection 14 data byte of a MIDI message 23 decimal number 18 default MIDI output device 8 28 dialog Find 16 Midi Setup 13 DirectMusic DLS synthesizer 8 28 Disable Trace 31 DLS synthesizer 8 28 DLS Synthesizer Access 29 documents 12 DSP Status 27 duplicate the selection 14 Edit 18 Edit menu 14 Enable Trace 31 Enhanced File Preview 27 external object 19 install 14 17 external objects automatic loading 20 Extras menu 33 File Preferences
74. rtual ports to your MIDI system you can use the same message box technique described above to send the createoutport and createinport messages SM createoutport lt portname gt lt drivername gt SM createinport lt portname gt lt drivername gt where portname is the name you assign to the port and drivername is the driver to be used currently only CoreMIDI is supported For example the following two messages SM createoutport myvirtualport CoreMIDI SM createinport myvirtualport CoreMIDI 32 Using MIDI Would create a virtual MIDI input and output port each named myvirtualport These virtual ports are not saved as part of the Max MSP setup so they will have to be recreated each time you restart Max See Also Ports How MIDI ports are specified setclock Control the clock speed of timing objects remotely 33 Ports How MIDI Ports Are Specified Max s MIDI Objects Each object in Max that transmits or receives MIDI data can be set to communicate with a specific port by typing in a letter argument after the name of the object Receive only from port a Transmit only out port b Any letter from a to z can be used provided that letter has been assigned to a device or a virtual port in the MIDI Setup dialog box Refer to the MIDI chapter for information about assigning abbreviations and MIDI channel ranges For MIDI objects that receive and transmit specific channel voice messages such as notein and b
75. s contained in the max startup folder The Help Folder is where online help files for each object are stored When you Option click on Macintosh or Alt click on Windows on an object Max searches the help folder for a file with that name and the help suffix The eight slots listed for Other Folders comprise the root levels of the Max search path You can either type the names of the folders you want to include or use the Choose button to use a folder selection dialog to specify it If a dot slash precedes the folder name listed in the File Preferences window it is a subfolder of the folder in which the Max application resides To specify a folder elsewhere you must type in the full path name of the folder beginning with the name of the hard disk that contains it Use slashes to specify folders within folders For example a subfolder called InProgress in the MyPatches folder in the Max application folder would be specified as 28 Menus Explanation oj Commands Performance Options Text Selection MyPatches InProgress If a name does not begin with a dot slash it must be the name of a volume a disk or disk partition and any folders in the volume are separated by slashes For example if you want Max to look in a folder called New Compositions inside the folder called MIDI files on the disk named MyDrive specify it as MyDrive MIDI files New Compositions If there are any spaces in the name when you type it in
76. s locked Make it impossible to select or edit objects belonging to the background layer in an unlocked Patcher window This is useful for editing over an image in the background while viewing the image After choosing Lock Background the menu item is checked Choosing Lock Background when the item is checked unlocks the background layer and makes the check mark disappear from the menu item This item is enabled if you have scrolled a Patcher window so that its original top left corner is no longer in the same location it might be hidden or 18 Menus Explanation oj Commands Restore Origin Object Menu Fix Width Align somewhere in the middle of the screen Choosing Set Origin in an unlocked Patcher window defines the current top left corner as the one that will appear when the patcher window is re opened after being saved This item is enabled if an origin has been defined with Set Origin and you have scrolled the Patcher window away from it Restore Origin scrolls the Patcher window to make the defined origin the top left corner Adjust the width of an object box a comment or a message box to accommodate all the text it contains on a single line When Auto Fix Width is checked in the Options menu Max will automatically adjust the width of object and message boxes each time they are edited If two or more objects are select this command adjusts the position of all selected objects so that they are perfectly aligned
77. selected which facilitates non textual editing operations such as moving and copying Clicking inside an entirely selected box and immediately releasing the mouse button will enter edit mode for that box Typing Automatically Edits Selected Box is typically on only if Select Text on Click is off If the entire box is selected typing immediately enters edit mode 29 Menus Explanation oj Commands Trace Menu Enable Disable Step Continue Abort Auto Step Set Breakpoint Clear If you turn this option off a text object must be in edit mode before typing will affect the text inside the box Enable Trace mode which allows you to step through every single message sent in a patch is used for debugging purposes If Trace mode is currently enabled choosing this command will disable it Choosing the Enable command automatically disables Overdrive if it is currently checked in the Options menu before enabling the Trace mode for debugging Once Trace is enabled the next message sent out an outlet will cause the patch cord through which it s travelling to blink and information about the message will be printed in the Max window You can then use other commands in the Trace menu to continue the debugging process When you Disable a Trace in progress Max finishes tracing the current messages then reverts to normal operating mode Send the message that s in the blinking patch cord into its destination inlet and ad
78. ssage is the information passed from one object to another A message can be a number a list of numbers separated by spaces a word referred to in Max as a symbol or any arbitrary combination of words and numbers The contents of a message determine its type The types of Max messages are int When a message consists of nothing but an integer number such as the message 127 it is understood by Max to be a message of type int A message could also say int 127 float When a message consists of nothing but a number containing a decimal point such as the messages 3 97 or 3 or 97 it is understood to be a message of type float short for floating point number The decimal point lets Max know it is a float As with ints it is possible but not necessary for a message to say float 3 97 lit A list of two or more numbers separated by spaces such as 6079 1 02 4 is of the type list The message need not but may begin with the word list Max recognizes a list whenever it sees a message consisting of a number followed by anything In fact a list can contain words as well as numbers as in the message 1 start 768 so long as it begins with a number A list can contain up to 256 items bang The message bang is a special message meaning do whatever it is you do For 13 Overview The Max Application example when the random object receives the message bang it sends a randomly chosen number out its outlet
79. t 18 Overview The Max Application You can type in any int as a hexadecimal number Hexadecimal is a base 16 number system often used in MIDI specifications and other computer related documentation Precede a hexadecimal number with 0x zero plus a small x as in 0xF0 same as the decimal number 240 Message Order An object often has more than one outlet and usually sends messages out all outlets at the same time Actually nothing really happens at the same time in Max Things can happen so fast as to seem simultaneous but it s important to know how Max orders messages When an object sends several messages at once out different outlets the order is actually right to left The rightmost outlet sends its message out first then the outlet just to the left of that and so on until the leftmost outlet This is true of virtually every object in Max Fitch Velocity Channel FBottom to Top The example on the left illustrates the right to left order of message output In the example on the right a single outlet has many patch cords connected to it all leading to different inlets of other objects In this case the order that messages are sent is determined by the right to left screen position of the receiving objects If two receiving objects are perfectly aligned vertically neither is further right than the other the order is bottom to top the object that is lower on the screen receives the message first If a single outle
80. t List Because there are so many names that may be typed into an object box you might need some help remembering all the possible choices When New Object List is checked in the Options menu Max provides you with a complete list of all available object names each time you place a new object box in the Patcher window All Ob jects l Control m Data n Dev ices p Graphics l Interaction II Librarians 5 Lists Uu Math amp Messages amp amp HIEI x MSP Analysis we MSP De lays MSP FFT TU MSP Filters MSP Functions ah MSP Generators New Object List window The New Object List window has two columns The left column lists categories of objects and the right section lists the names of objects in the selected category The All Objects category lists all object names known to Max To find an object name you can scroll through the list type the first few letters of the desired object name or use the up and down arrow keys on the Macintosh keyboard To choose an object name from the list and place it in the object box double click on a name or press Return Enter or Space to choose the highlighted name When an object name has been chosen the New Object List disappears The blinking insertion point remains inside the object box allowing you to type in any arguments the object may require Finally click anywhere outside of the object box or press the Enter key on Macintosh or the Shift and 16 Creating Objects
81. t Menu Each Patcher or Text window and each object that displays text in a Patcher window can be assigned a specific font and font size To change the font of an object select it then choose the desired font characteristics from the Font menu When no objects are selected choosing a font or font size will set the default font characteristics for new objects created in the active window In a locked Patcher window you can make a textedit object active and change its font with this menu Choosing a font or font size when the Max window is active changes the font used in the Max window and also sets the default font characteristics for any new Patcher or Text window created from then on and stores those settings in the Max Preferences file Specify the font size Font sizes available on your system for the currently chosen font will be shown in outline The fonts shown in the menu depend on the fonts available on your system On Windows fonts are listed in the Faces submenu Options Menu Overdrive All Windows Active Settings for all the commands in the Options menu are stored in the Max Preferences file This file is located in the Library Preferences Max 4 Preferences Folder folder on Macintosh On Windows this folder is called Max 4 Preferences Flles and its location varies according to the name of the user logged in e g C Documents and Settings lt user gt Application Data Cycling 74 Max 4 Preferences Files
82. t is connected to two inlets of the same receiving object the rightmost inlet will receive the message first When an object has more than one inlet it expects to receive messages in its inlets in right to left order Generally an object will store all the messages it receives until it receives a message in its leftmost inlet then it will perform some operation and send messages out its outlets The vast majority of objects are triggered by a message in their leftmost inlet There are some exceptions to this rule but the left inlet is the triggering inlet for almost all objects 19 Overview The Max Application Notice that this makes sense because objects send their messages right to left so the last message an object receives will usually be the one that triggers output IE this arrives First Humber the result will be 24 is shored If this arrives first the result will be 36 Some objects can receive a list of numbers in the left inlet and the result will be the same as if the numbers had been received in different inlets in right to left order Fitch Velocity Channel Channel and velocity are shored then piteh trigger transmission of MIDI Dole Message Velocity Channel Fitch Finally suppose that a message is sent several places from the same outlet but that message triggers the receiving objects to send their messages What is the order in that case The answer is that the message will trigger
83. textual Menus in the Patcher Window essent tntntntnn 33 Object Context al Mense sbat tipestensie nadie t m let dde tti vetture loareet eee 33 Table of Contents Patch Cord Contextual Men sor qid dieta 33 Blank Space Contextual Men s menaa ree in RT aiii 33 Object Quick Referenc IM en ths sssrinin neiii a 35 Objects Creating Objects in the Patcher Window ssssssssssssssssssessssssessssssessssssessssssessessesasesees 14 Object Palette ya iesire nerea raeas E d erar e a AE EE EE 14 Object BOX CC isis n i E EEE A EEEE EAE a 15 New Object Listerine eiii Be E EE pude EE NE tg end 16 Editing the Max New Object Listine e E Rada este AEON ERE 17 Externals Extending the Capabilities of Max eesessssesossossseossosscsossosossossosossossosossossesossossesossesose 19 Two Kinds of Max Objects te bie cete eiie e tek Dep eerte red otc tdns 19 Keep External Objects Where They Can Be Found sse 19 Object Mappings T C Y 21 External Objects and Collectives tacite tede Hos dta Se tense agna iniiai 21 Errors When Loading External Objects entia tetbe trio radere tipene 21 External Objects from Third Parties estet stet tendre ttes tibt tag se eoe est n 22 MIDI Overview and Specification ocior pir Ero Ep ERR RPr tipi S un be pebt febr Ue PD EP UDU PU De taoi bU RE UD 23 MID IIWICSS a B6S E M 23 BUPIEGIO T cr seat 23 FR ae UN
84. the message is marked as being on MIDI Channel 17 you know it comes from MIDI channel 1 ofa device with a Channel Offset of 16 It is not essential that you configure this information before using Max for the first time but MIDI input and output may not be predictable unless you do so The Using MIDI chapter of this manual provide complete information about using this dialog box The default MIDI output device under Max is the internal synthesizer supported by your operating system On the Macintosh this is an AudioUnit DLS synthesizer that supports both its own set of internal sounds as a General MIDI bank as well as Level 2 SoundFont files On Windows this is the Microsoft DirectMusic DLS synthesizer Note that the Microsoft DLS synthesizer does not support SoundFont files For more information about working with DLS synths see the section Using the DLS Synthesizer located in the chapter Using Max with MIDI Setup For now you may wish to click Auto Setup which will assign unique abbreviations and MIDI Channel Offsets to all devices in your system that are connected to different MIDI cables Devices at the top of the list will be assigned an abbreviation and a Channel Offset of 0 You should set the Channel Offset of your most commonly used Input and Output Device to 0 This will let you address it with the most common range of MIDI Channels 1 16 If Auto Setup did not do this you may wish to change the assignments Overview The
85. tive MIDI driver objects in operation 27 Using MIDI Using the MIDI Setup Window The Max application specifies multiple MIDI ports by letter a z or by using MIDI channel numbers above 16 This requires a certain amount of translation between Core MIDI device names and the Max lettering scheme You can use the MIDI Setup window to perform this translation To see the MIDI Setup window choose MIDI Setup from the File menu e00 MIDI Setup On Input Device Abbrev Offset On Output Device Abbrev Offset to Max MSP 1 2 ey AU DLS Synth 1 9 to Max MSP 2 2 M from Max MSP 1 2 9 from Max MSP 2 2 9 QTMA Synth 1 2 9 System Setup Auto Setup The MIDI Setup window lists the MIDI device names and lets you associate letter abbreviations and ranges of MIDI channels with them The default MIDI output device under Max is the internal synthesizer supported by your operating system On the Macintosh this is an AudioUnit DLS synthesizer that supports both its own set of internal sounds as a General MIDI bank as well as Level 2 SoundFont files On Windows this is the Microsoft DirectMusic DLS synthesizer Note that the Microsoft DLS synthesizer does not support SoundFont files For more information about working with DLS synths see the section Using the DLS Synthesizer later in this chapter To assign an abbreviation and MIDI channel range to a device select the desired values from the pop up menus T
86. top left corner of the window being moved to the point where you clicked to get the contextual menu In addition an Other menu item in the Paste From submenu allows you to choose any Patcher file using an standard open file dialog and paste its contents into the current patcher window 34 Menus Explanation oj Commands Object Quick Reference Menu See Also menu menubar Objects Collectives Option Control clicking on Macintosh or Alt right clicking on Windows on an object produces a pop up menu that lists all of the messages you can send to the object along with some information about the arguments to those messages Open slider help About This Menu The message name is listed first followed by the argument types if any in square brackets If you see int after a message name it means the message expects a single number as an argument If you see int int int after a message name it means the message expects three numbers as arguments If you see variable after a message name it means the argument can vary and Max does not have enough information to determine the exact argument syntax required Beneath the message listing there are two additional items One opens the object s help file and the other opens a file called boxquickref help that explains the Object Quick Reference menu Pop up menu to display text and send messages Put up a custom menu bar Creating a new object Grouping fi
87. u can use the computer keyboard to type in the first few letters of an object name as you would in a standard open file dialog This can be a useful shortcut for typing the entire name of an object especially when the current category is All Objects When the object name you want is selected double click on it or press Return Enter or Space and the name will be entered into the object box If you want to open a help file for an object Option double click on its name in the list on Macintosh or Alt double click on Windows If you don t want any of the names shown in the New Object List press the Delete Backspace key and the window will go away without entering any text into your box 25 Overview The Max Application Text Window In addition to Patcher windows you can open simple Text windows for taking notes or for editing the data inside certain objects Create a new Text window by choosing Text from the New submenu of the File menu 060 6 Untitled This is the Max Text window which is certainly my favorite word processor on the market What other program will automatically change all the text of your document ta the Font you select Table Window The Table window is used to view and edit an array of numbers The numbers displayed in such a window may be contained in a corresponding table object that you will place in a Patcher window to access the data Done Lx i 26 Overview The Max Application T
88. ue For example the following message would set the latency to 10 milliseconds SM driver latency 10 portname Virtual Input and Output Devices on Macintosh Max has two input and output devices you can use to send MIDI to other programs running your computer or to send MIDI to Max from other programs The output devices are virtual sources They are labeled on the Macintosh MIDI setup window as from Max MSP 1 and from Max MSP 2 They are sources of MIDI for other programs and can be selected as MIDI inputs in another application to establish a MIDI connection from Max The input devices labeled to Max MSP 1 and to Max MSP 2 are known as virtual destinations because you can choose them as MIDI output devices in other applications 31 Using MIDI Here is an example that uses the Macintosh MIDIKeys application to send MIDI to Max The Destination is listed as to Max MSP 1 so when you click on the keyboard MIDI will be sent to Max s virtual destination HOL Midi Keys Destination to Max MSP 1 B Listen to port from Max MSP 1 HE Channel l z Velocity Similarly the Listen to port pop up menu shows the Max virtual source from Max MSP 1 If MIDI notes were sent from Max to the from Max MSP 1 device they would be displayed on the Midi Keys keyboard Adding Virtual MIDI Ports By default Max creates two virtual MIDI ports for both input and output If you wish to add additional vi
89. ut device list if no device is specified in an argument If multiple devices share the same letter abbreviation Max will use the first one in the list at the time a MIDI input or output object is created with that abbreviation as an argument Changing the abbreviations of devices has no effect on pre existing objects although it will have an effect on the meaning of subsequent port messages sent to MIDI output objects with abbreviations as argument Easy Default Setup To set all devices abbreviations and channel offsets click the Auto Setup button Max will create a standard set of abbreviations and channel offsets for both input and output devices The first device in each list will be given an abbreviation of a and a channel offset of 0 the second device will be given an abbreviation of b and a channel of 16 and so on Using the DLS Synthesizer Both the Macintosh and Windows XP provide a DLS Downloadable Soundfont synthesizer for MIDI playback If you don t want to use any external MIDI gear you can drive the DLS synth directly from Max via MIDI By default a single augraph on Mac OS X or midi dm on Windows port is created However you can create additional MIDI synthesizer ports and assign new DLS sound bank files to each one Addressing the DLS synthesizers currently requires the use of the message box technique where you send messages to named objects by typing a semicolon followed by the message text into a message box then cli
90. vance to the resulting next message The next message will be reported in the Max window and the patch cord through which it is travelling will blink Advance in normal operating mode until the next breakpoint is encountered See the Set Breakpoint command below Immediately stop the execution of the patch Step through the messages in the patch at a steady moderate pace until a the Trace is completed b a breakpoint is encountered or c a Disable Abort or Auto Step command is chosen from the Trace menu With the Patcher window unlocked and a patch cord selected Set Breakpoint will put a stopping point at that patch cord at which a Trace will stop when it is operating on a Continue or Auto Step command With the Patcher window unlocked and a patch cord selected Clear Breakpoint 30 Menus Explanation oj Commands Breakpoint will remove from that patch cord any breakpoint previously set with the Set Breakpoint command ClearAll Remove all breakpoints from all loaded patches Breakpoints Window Menu Close Close All Next Previous Cascade Tile Horizontally Tile Vertically Windows only These standard Windows specific menu items are used to manage multiple windows and behave as they do in other Windows applications Hide Double clicking on a table or patcher object or on an object that is actually a Subwindows subpatch opens a subwindow to display the contents of that object The Hide Subwindows command c
91. velocity of O note off 50 milliseconds later piteh values Numbers can also be generated within Max either automatically with timing objects such as metro tempo and clocker or interactively onscreen with user interface objects such as slider dial and number box The numbers generated in Max can be sent to MIDI objects and transmitted out to play music Clicking or dragging on the keyboard slider sends out pitch and velocity values Thakenote passes on the pitch and velocity values then sends the same pitch with a velocity of O note ottf 50 milliseconds later 32 Overview The Max Application Help You can see Help files for built in and external Max objects at any time Option clicking on Macintosh or Alt clicking on Windows on an object in an unlocked Patcher opens the Help file for that object You can also Option click on Macintosh or Alt click on Windows on any object s box in a locked Patcher to open a help file for that object if Help from Locked Patchers in the Options menu is checked Help files are actual operating patches that let you see an object in action The following example shows a typical Help file Arguments nane flush Inlets int Turn off notes that are still on Outlets int Move the slider up and down ta play a bang tell few hanging notes flush to flush passes numbers for pitch and turn the velocity but keeps track of which note ons haven t received corresponding n
92. vertically or horizontally All selected objects are aligned in relation to the leftmost object in the selection The Align feature makes an educated guess as to whether to align the selected objects vertically or horizontally If all objects in the selection are below the top edge of the leftmost object but not completely to the right of the right edge of the leftmost object the objects are aligned vertically Otherwise they are aligned horizontally If a patch cord is selected Align squares off the patch cord attempting to avoid crossing over boxes in doing so In certain cases the task of avoiding boxes is too difficult and Align gives up without changing the patch cord s shape 19 Menus Explanation oj Commands Get Info Color Name Imageburger Opens an Inspector window that lets you change an object s properties Almost all of the user interface objects as well as table objects have certain characteristics such as size and range which can be set with Get Info The actual contents of the Inspector window will depend on the object Table Size 126 Table Range 126 O Save Table with Patcher O Don t Sawe L Use Note Name Legend Li Signed Values Inspector window for a table Options Choosing Get Info in an unlocked Patcher window prints a list in the Max window of all subpatches and external objects used in that patch You can use this to locate the external object or subpatch files
93. x objects have file names that differ from the object names that you would type into an object box for example the external filename of the object is actually rdiv When you type V into an object box Max uses a text file called max objectmappings txt that is loaded when you start Max to associate what you ve typed with the name of the external object The max objectmappings txt contains a complete listing of file mappings This and other object mapping files can be found in Library Application Support Cycling 74 init on Macintosh and C Program Files Common Files VCycling 7A init on Windows External Objects and Collectives When you choose the menu item Save As Collective from the File menu to create a collective file the file you produce will contain the patch and all subpatcher files and external objects it uses In certain cases not all external objects will be included and you may see no such object errors when you load your collective This means that the standard search path containing your externals hasn t been specified for example a patch that uses other patcher files that are loaded dynamically with the pcontrol object will need to have those files included explicitly in your collective script using the patcher keyword For more information on making collectives see the Collectives section of the Max Topics manual Errors When Loading External Objects When there is an error loading an external object Max wi

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