my first question ;)

what do you mean ? you could "create" an "audio player" in Max, using sfplayer~ (read direct-from-drive) or player~ (upload your audio files in buffer~first). I don’t know what is beckhoff’s PLC, and a quick look at their site didn’t help me at all understanding what is that thing. And there is, like, the playbar ui object in Max if you want quicktime-like commands. Is that what you want ? If you are looking for a software other than Max, then i’m not sure you’re on the right place.