IA1 Practice Paragraph IA.

1 - Max and t he numbers: t he b inary operators

to the divider object have a decimal point as their last character, wh ich declare
that Max should use floa ting point operations. Also note th e rout ing of the two
patch cords that exit the float numbe r box under the mtof object: one cord is
connected d irectly to t he saw~ object below it, but the second heads off to the
right, heads upwa rds, and fina lly winds up connected to th e multi plier object
that has the argument 3 .

W'~
!~m'"m m
mtoij ~~
1 1 1" 1 1

~~'__J
'i39~44
1
reel- saw-
.. ...•
• •.

·~~ dac-

Fig. IA.9 The f ile IA_02_fifth.maxpat

If you compare figur es IA.6 and IA.9, notice that the frequenc ies calculated for
the note a f ifth above are different. By using two d istinct mtof objects in the
first patch, we calculated a tempered fifth (the f ifth normally found in western
music), which is def ined as the inte rval formed by combining 7 tempered semi-
to nes. When we used the ratio 3/2 on the o utp ut of a single mtof, however,
we calculated a natural fifth, which is slightly wider that a tempered fif th. The
difference is around 2 cents (which is a unit def ined to be 1/100 of a tempered
semitone).

OPERATIONS THAT USE THE EXCLAMATION POINT

All of th e operators spoken of so far are binary operators , so called because
th ey need two inputs (also called ope rands in computer lingo) to produce their
output. In the objects th at we have already seen, the first operand is the numb er
that is input on the left inlet and which triggers the operation, while the second
operand is the argument (or else the number on the right inlet).
For subt raction and division, however, there also exist two objects for wh ich the
operands are reversed. Their second operand is input on the left inlet and tr ig-
gers the operat ion, wh ile the first operand is the object's argument.
The name for these "r eversed" objects is made up of an exclamation point plus
the character for the underlying operation: I - for subtraction (wh ich we have
already encountered in patch 01_ 17_pan.maxpat), and ! / for d ivision.
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