My Fave Max Objects (1)
Today I write to you about some of the Max MSP objects I love. This will be likely an ongoing intermittent series, as there is so many objects I like. It will be short and sweet. I talk about the first three today, Cycle~, Random and Gate.
Random
This is the bread and butter random number generator which will output random numbers within the range between 0 and 1 less than the argument specified. It is simple; left inlet to trigger the number and right to set the max range (+1). It aligns with the other random style objects, in its function. Chance based composition has thrived for me with objects like this, giving that generative, raw random feel. This has been used in many of my Live Takes, and in my tools created. It was a beauty for live performances such as NOW-WHAT and more. I would not be the artist I am today without this simple object. It paved the way for me when I first learnt Max, all those years ago.
Cycle~
This object is an interpolating oscillator that reads repeatedly through one cycle of a waveform, using a wavetable of 512 samples. Its default waveform is one cycle of a cosine wave. It is the basis of countless synthesiser works I have done over the years. Mainly I have worked in simple drone as a core part of my aesthetics. This objects was used extensively in my latest album Wave Experiments For Those Who Came Before, and many hundreds of the Live Takes series I have done. I put praise out into the aether for the work I have been able to do with Cycle~. It can build to become more complex, but it is beautiful and clean on its own.
Gate
Gate is a simple utility object that will pass the input out a specific outlet. When learning of the 3 foundational pillars of Max, MSP and Jitter, objects like gate, allow the workflow of Max to function. Controlling the flow of messages and data is how Max filters its controls. This is a workhorse, simple object, that simply would not allow me to code, if it didn’t exist. These types of objects, seem lame by comparison of what I have spoken about today, but they give us the ability to do what we want as artists. There is functional beauty to a patcher with clean, easy to read workflow.
Here is a patcher that uses all three objects. You can see them marked in red. For the purpose of ease, I have tried to duplicate as much as possible from the help file, to show you how easy it is to make something cool. This is a patcher that cycles various sine waves with phasors (creating a wobble sound) that applies a random frequency (using the random object) to them, filtered with gate objects. It was fun to experiment with using the objects to make something fun. While it was pretty simple, with such utilitarian functional objects - it will be fun to see what future versions of this series enable creatively.
If you have any fave objects, hit me up and let me know why!
