Akos Kokai

With the release of Max 7 (Great work!), I'm curious if there's any documentation on how files in M4L devices/"Projects" are handled? I am looking for docs on this because I find the behavior unpredictable and somewhat aggravating. Failing that, I'd be grateful if someone could clarify how they think M4L devices are intended to be organized, given the separate "Library" organizing systems of Max and Live.

Live looks for devices (.amxd files) in its own (User) Library locations. Max, in turn, has its a completely separate "Default Folder for Max for Live Device Projects." Max seems to actively manage the files in this location: when you're editing a M4L device, that device gets its own directory here with a copy of the .amxd file, and after you're done editing, the directory and the .amxd file get deleted automatically. But if your device contains other files (patchers, scripts, etc), then the "Project" directory persists with those files organized into various subdirectories.

With Max 6, I found that I could make the Project for a given device survive automatic deletion, by hardlinking the .amxd file in the Live library to the one in the Project. Not sure if this is going against the intended design... Presumably I should be "exporting" the M4L devices if I want to share them with others, but that's a huge pain if I just want to version-control them for my own purposes.

Now, in Max 7, further confusion: I find some M4L devices using the browser. When I open one, the .amxd file gets moved from the Project's 

 subdirectory, whereupon it also disappears from the browser and cannot be called up again. Then, when I use these devices in Ableton Live, the files get moved back into the 

Now that you can open M4L devices directly in Max, should I instead be browsing the 

 Library, in Max, to find my M4L devices?

Here's what I think I know:
Live looks for devices (.amxd files) in its own (User) Library locations. Max, in turn, has its a completely separate "Default Folder for Max for Live Device Projects." Max seems to actively manage the files in this location: when you're editing a M4L device, that device gets its own directory here with a copy of the .amxd file, and after you're done editing, the directory and the .amxd file get deleted automatically. But if your device contains other files (patchers, scripts, etc), then the "Project" directory persists with those files organized into various subdirectories.

Now, in Max 7, further confusion: I find some M4L devices using the browser. When I open one, the .amxd file gets moved from the Project's other subdirectory into the patchers subdirectory, whereupon it also disappears from the browser and cannot be called up again. Then, when I use these devices in Ableton Live, the files get moved back into the other folder. ...?

Now that you can open M4L devices directly in Max, should I instead be browsing the Live Library, in Max, to find my M4L devices?


M4L device file locations & Project structure