randymcnab

I am new to Max MSP and am having problems with my loop patch.

I thought i had everything connected properly but when i go to record the first loop i get no sound and the following loops seem to record at random.

Could anyone please have a look at my patch and see if you know whats wrong? would be appreciated.

loop-patch-problems

Describe for me what the two bangs in the upper left of your patch trigger and in what order they should be used.

Also what are you trying to achieve with the nested [delay] objects?

Thanks for the reply and yeh sorry should have explained.

The two bangs in the top left corner are to start (Left) and Stop (Right) the loop recording.

Like I said i'm new to Max but the delay objects were to delay each loop recording, if that makes sense?

I've probably gone about this the wrong way and have tried correcting myself through youtube videos but can't seem to get it to work.

Right I think I can kind of see what you're trying to do with this patch but first off I think that mixing in Max objects when you're trying to get signal rate accuracy is a major error. Message based objects (all those that don't have MSP style patch cords) offer no guarantee of timing and so if you are trying to use these to get nice loops you will ultimately fail. You'll get slight inaccuracies in the length of your loops that will cause to be slightly out of sync however this will be noticeable. This i a really easy mistake to make if you are new to Max and there are all kinds of subtleties to do with scheduler time etc. that take some time to master so don't beat yourself up at all.

From your patch what you seem to be trying to do is to record four separate loops one after the other right? So loop 2 starts recording immediately after loop 1 and so forth. Then you wish to fade between the various recorded loops using your [gain~] objects if I understand your patch correctly? Some further explanation would help me to provide you with better advice but for a start I think you'd be better off recording into one single buffer and then using the start and end arguments of the [wave~] object to play back the relevant sections. If you would like me to I can out together some annotated code to give you a bit of a helping hand?

Because you have the inlets and outlets of some of the delay objects connected, you have created an infinite loop with record switching on and off forever.

You have the first delay connected to the input of the second and the second to the input of the first and the third. Also the second delay has [r looplenght] connected to both inlets. When the delay object receives a number in its left inlet, "The number is stored as the number of milliseconds to delay a bang received in the left inlet. It then automatically sends a bang message to itself to start the delay."

Is what you want to do trigger the [record~] left to right as one ends the next begins?

Because you have the inlets and outlets of some of the delay objects connected, you have created an infinite loop with record switching on and off forever. 

Is what you want to do trigger the [record~] left to right as one ends the next begins?


He hasn't actually created an infinite loop because he hasn't connected the output of a delay back to a "hot" input of another. If he has he'd be getting stack overflow errors which he isn't apparently.

While it may not be obvious, sending a bang to the right inlet of delay produces the same result as sending it to the left. 

I apologise Rick I never realised that. Interesting he wasn't getting any stack overflows then. I thought Max would pick it up despite the delay.

Hey Sean I've put together some example code for you which does what I think you were trying to achieve. I've annotated it and put a few tips in that I wish I'd had together when I first started patching please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions.

All the comments are much appreciated. It's the whole linking the objects that's stifling me a bit.

But yes CPHAS you are correct the idea was to hit the start bang or the first sample, when finished click the stop so the next one will record, then the third automatically and so on.

Thanks for the revised patch too, i'll have a play around with it tonight.

OK well if you look at my patch I've replaced your pair of bangs with a single toggle. On will record and off stops recording. Mine differs slightly in that you record a single buffer for all four samples which are then split. So you need to stop recording after the fourth sample not the first. I hope it all makes sense.

CPHAS thank you very much. Still getting to grips with the timing of the loops but other than that it's exactly what i was aiming for. Just at the moment i lack the knowledge.

That's alright no problem. What exactly are you struggling with I might be able to give you a few further pointers.

Just like I was saying i find it hard recording and playing the loops back in time with each other. Going to try running the patch out of Max and into Ableton to help me with that though. If i can figure out how to that is!

Oh so it's a timing issue? Well if you could live with setting the length of the loop beforehand you could have a metronome to help keep you in time.

Loop patch problems