How long can Max run/record for continuously?

puffinsrule's icon

Hello
I am new here, although I've been using max/MSP for a little while.

I am trying to create an environment in which sound is recorded continuously, for a significant length of time (a number of days, at least).
I don't need any info on specific objects or anything... this is my question:

Are there any problems with running max continuously? Am I going to run into problems simply because I am expecting max to run permanently for several days? Does anyone have any experiences of running patches continuously and for significant lengths of time?

Furthermore... recording continuously. I am assuming that, if sound is to be contnuously recorded, it will need to be broken up into seperate files every so often. Is there a sensible limit for how long I should record audio into one file, before moving on to a new file?

Apologies if I've contravened any forum ettiquete by bursting in here with my question.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
thanks
sam

pdelges's icon

On 03-mars-07, at 18:36, sam wrote:

> Are there any problems with running max continuously?

Max shouldn't be a problem, but some objects may use more and more
memory and never release it...
But recording soundfiles shouldn't be a problem.

It's anyway a good practice to restart your computer once a while
(every week or so?)

> Am I going to run into problems simply because I am expecting max to
> run permanently for several days? Does anyone have any experiences of
> running patches continuously and for significant lengths of time?

I have a patch running since 2 years...

> Furthermore... recording continuously. I am assuming that, if sound is
> to be contnuously recorded, it will need to be broken up into seperate
> files every so often.

Your OS probably has a file length limit. Isn't it 2GB on MacOSX (or
was it under MacOS9) ? So you should indeed break your files.

And anyway, in case of a crash, you may recover more datas if your save
short files.

> Apologies if I've contravened any forum ettiquete by bursting in here
> with my question.

That's why this list is for, isn't it?

p

_____________________________
Patrick Delges

Centre de Recherches et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie
http://users.skynet.be/crfmw/max

Andrew Burke's icon

I have done a lot of overnight recording on my MBP and found there is a file size limit. 2GB rings a bell but I can't remember for sure. If you are going to build start and stop recording into your patch I recommend using the cputimer object. Here is a little patch I made that starts a new file every 50 minutes. It only does 10 files, but that could be changed.

I know its a little sloppy.

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Andrew

puffinsrule's icon

wow,
thankyou both very much.
Andrew, sorry if I'm being stupid, but how do I get the patch from that code?

cheers
sam

Emmanuel Jourdan's icon

On 3 mars 07, at 21:07, sam wrote:

> wow,
> thankyou both very much.
> Andrew, sorry if I'm being stupid, but how do I get the patch from
> that code?

- select the text
- copy
- new from clipboard in the Max File's menu (requires 4.5.5 or higher).

ej

puffinsrule's icon

Quote: Emmanuel Jourdan wrote on Sat, 03 March 2007 16:44
----------------------------------------------------
> On 3 mars 07, at 21:07, sam wrote:
>
> > wow,
> > thankyou both very much.
> > Andrew, sorry if I'm being stupid, but how do I get the patch from
> > that code?
>
> - select the text
> - copy
> - new from clipboard in the Max File's menu (requires 4.5.5 or higher).
>
> ej
>
----------------------------------------------------

cheers!