1.7 Practice Paragraph 1.

7 - Some Max/MSP basics

is possible, fo r example, to t ransfo rm an acoustic sound int o numbe rs by using

an analog -t o-d igital converter , to carry out ope rations upon th e result ing
num bers using signa l processing, and afte rwa rds, to play back the new series
of numbe rs on a lo udspeaker using digital-to -analog conversion. A lternat ively,
a series of numbe rs can be direct ly gene rated using sound synt hesis and tr ans-
fo rmed into aud ible sound using d igital -to- analog conversion (as we saw in
t he f irst section of t he t heory half of th is chapte r).

So meone might object to t he need fo r MSP, point ing out tha t Max objects
(those w ithout t he t ilde) already possess t he ability to operate on numbers.
We have, after all, already seen t hat it is possible to perform addit ion and
subtraction, to calculate square roots, and presumab ly all other mathematica l
operat ions. Likewise, we have seen t hat it is possible to convert MIDI note values
into their corresponding frequenc ies by means of mtof , w hich is a Max object
that has no ti lde. 43 What is t he true difference between Max and MSP? Generally
speaking, num bers are passed around by Max objects more slowly than those
passed between MSP objects. Max objects are used to manage control param-
eters like the pitch of a note or its intensity, wh ich can easily be passedaro und as
small, easily managed, packets of data, wh ile in the case of MSP objects, the digi-
tal signals w ith w hich they commun icate must be conti nuously generated, point
by point, at all t imes t hat a patch is active. If we modify the spatial posit ion of a
sound by using the hor izontal slider in the patch O1_ 17_pan.maxpat, for example,
the slider generates at the most a few dozen or so "Ma x numbers" per second
(which we can watch in the number box below it). The dig ital oscillator that does
the work of generat ing t he sound, howeve r, must generate at least 44,100 "MSP
numbers" per second (the standard sampling rate for a CD) in order to have good
sound quality. (For a deeper discussion of t his top ic, see theory Section 5.1.)

A second related, and perhaps mo re important, diff erence is that Max, unl ike
MSP, processes its messages at a variable speed. Return ing to the slider
example, th e quantity of numbe rs generated per second by the slider depends
upon the speed with which it is moved. In MSP, however, signals always operate
at a constant speed, wh ich as we know is called th e sample rate. Signal data is
passed, in ou r example, at t he above-quoted 44,100 "MSP n umbers" (samples)
per second, and interrupti ng the flow of this data wo uld result in clicks,
undesirable digital noise, and general chaos. In our patches, when we click on
the "startwindow" message connected to t he dac- , we start t his flow; when
w e click on "stop ", we halt it. 44 As before , a deeper discussion of t hese top ics
will be found in Chapter 5, w hich is dedicated to d igital audio.

43 But, remember, there is also the mtof - object!

44 It is importan t to underscore the fact that the flow of data continues whenever a patch is

active, even when it is not producing audible sound. If we reduce t he amplitu de of a signal to 0,
for example, it w ill still consist of an uninterrupte d flow of zeros, and if we set the frequency of
an oscillator to O Hz, the oscillator w ill simply spit out a single repeated sample value (the value of
which w ill depend upon wh ich wavefo rm is being generat ed and also upon t he location in the cycle
being produced by the oscillator when it is set to O Hz).
108