Wojciech Morawski

My name is Wojciech Morawski and I am a part of small company named lowertone which makes Max based apps and utilities. We have already made a release of the first pack of Max h.elpers - a free collection (CC license) of Max patches designed to make the patching process faster, improve its visibility and to encourage Max users to develop their skills.

Our idea is to give students a bunch of patches which deal with specific problems and can be freely used as abstractions. In that way one can easily use them to speed up patching or to learn how to solve some specific tasks they cope with.

h.elpers is pack of 16 addons for Max/MSP, that should help in faster and easier prototyping and learning.

h.dac~ – audio output with limiter and recorder

h.del~ – delay with feedback and freeze options

h.ext~ – dynamic external audio routing

h.meter~ – customizable audio signal meter

h.midi_Key – converting computer keyboard into midi input

h.slider~ – for using dB curves for 0. – 1. values

h.solo~ – easy soloing of multiple signals

h.soloStereo~ – easy soloing of multiple stereo signals

h.elpers consist of:
h.cpu~ – meter of CPU usage
h.dac~ – audio output with limiter and recorder
h.del~ – delay with feedback and freeze options
h.dw~ – easy dry/wet control
h.ext~ – dynamic external audio routing
h.meter~ – customizable audio signal meter
h.midi_Key – converting computer keyboard into midi input
h.midi_S – mapping for midi signals
h.pan~ – panning module
h.print – easier printing with gate
h.psd~ – pseudo stereo delay
h.rec~ – faster audio recording
h.slider~ – for using dB curves for 0. – 1. values
h.solo~ – easy soloing of multiple signals
h.soloStereo~ – easy soloing of multiple stereo signals
h.vol~ – easier volume control

download: http://lowertone.net/software/helpers/

lowertone-h-elpers-max-add-ons

Damn... I wish I learned about this earlier... now I kinda built my alternatives already haha.. This is super useful and it fixes a lot of small details.

Thank you jbl! We have spent really a lot of time to make it useful. In next 3 months we will release next package of h.elpers so If you enjoy it, please stay in touch :)

You can like as on FB to get latest news.

You can like as on FB to get latest news.
https://www.facebook.com/lowertone


I have a question about code optimization.

I notice that you recreate some kind of help file withing the subpatcher. This is smart as this is much easier to build this kind of set of objects that way, however, I am concerned about performance if I were to use a really big amount of h.elpers in a very big patcher. I am wondering if the addition of these hidden GUI objects could make a difference at some point.

Usage of GUI slow down your patch only when GUI objects are included in segment which compute something. It means that its better to use pack object instead message box with for example "set $1". We keep that in mind creating h.elpers so ther is no GUI object included in any logical structure of our patches. Check this patch to comapre timing of computations.

I think what I like best about your external suite is that it gives a really good head start on how to fix/simplify some of the most recurring actions. Also, if someone want to make sure his project is as compatible as possible, it's easy to extract the external and make your own subpatcher with the same code inside so the external is not required to run the patcher.

Could you explain why the [p clean_h.vol~] get better results than the [p normal_h.vol~] ? I can't see any difference between both except of some comments and [patcherargs]. Thanks.

Could you explain why the [p clean_h.vol~] get better results than the  [p normal_h.vol~] ? I can't see any difference between both except of some comments and [patcherargs]. Thanks.


Truly I have no idea. But I can tell you one funny thing. I made small change in a previous patch - I switched positions of [p clean_h.vol~] and [p normal_h.vol~]. Now [p normal_h.vol~] is left most And you know what? It is the fastest one :)

New h.elpers are available for free download!

h.filtergraph~ – graphical filter designed for use with bpatcher

New h.elpers are available for free download!
Update includes two new addons:

h.sampler~ – stereo sampler
h.filtergraph~ – graphical filter designed for use with bpatcher

lowertone h.elpers - max add-ons