Advice on moving an object within an X/Y axis to change sound.

stoneybrave's icon

Hi, we're trying to create a visual tool which enables a sound to be manipulated by moving a graphic around within a space. Setting parameters to the X and Y axis to determine the sound. We are newcomers to Max and are grasping the basics but would like any help if possible. Thanks

stoneybrave's icon

We have began looking at nodes and would like to know if it is possible to assign a sound to a node and use its size and position within the x and y axis to determine parameters such as panning or amplitude.

saulpimpson's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

You want Pictslider I think.

saulpimpson's icon

Actually I just looked at Nodes for the first time. I am new to max 5 but used max 4 for years. The help file has a subpatcher called interpolating presets that you should look at.

Andrew Benson's icon

Nodes should work great for this purpose. Be sure to check out the different outputs of nodes and spend some time with the help patch.

seejayjames's icon

nodes rocks. I did something similar the hard way for a project a couple years ago:

Then nodes came out...it was bittersweet: I had spent so much time doing my distance-tracking patch from scratch, but at the same time it was great to know that this was a useful-enough function to get a new native Max object for it. awesome, it's multitouch, pressure-or-light-sensitive-ready!

moobla's icon

I have been using nodes as well and have a similar question, how would you go about assigning audio files to either the nodes or the cross hair...i am quite new to max as well..thanks

moobla's icon

Or how would one assign a wav file to a pictslider

saulpimpson's icon

@moobia It's not about assigning a wav file to a pictslider or nodes but using the numbers that they output to either trigger samples with groove~ play~ sfplay~ etc or to change the parameters like speed, volume, pan, loop length, starttime, endtime, etc. I'm at work now but if I have time later I can share an example.

Andrew Benson's icon

Nodes, like many of the UI objects, just outputs numbers in a list format. You can take those numbers, using unpack or something similar, scale them, and use them to set the value of other objects. If none of this makes sense, it's time to go read the first ten Max tutorials and then start in on the MSP ones.