BenBowman86

I have been told that it is possible to create vertical sound systems within Max/MSP.

I am trying to find anyone who might be a fan of Dead Space (I'm studying game sound design) and would be able to help me with a map to be able to re-create something similar used within games such as this.

I'm relatively new to Max and this is way beyond what i know, if anyone can reply to this that would be great!!

maxmsp-controlled-layering-of-4-sounds-dead-space

I'm intrigued, what's a 'vertical sound system'?

Sound design on a horizontal plane comes out in steps one after another, essentially its like playing one track after another like on a CD, sound on a vertical plane is when you have say 4 different layers of music that filter in and out of one another.

Say the four layers respond to how fast you may be moving and your moving slow, you get a bass line, go faster a 2nd sound should enter, slow down it filters out again, jump to a jog, you get the bass line, 2nd cue and now the 3rd layer.....this sort of sound system is used a lot in Game design since it helps create better dynamics and creates flexible 'hits' since the game doesn't really know when the player will do something.

I was told by my lecturer Max can do such things, do you have any idea?

 Say the four layers respond to how fast you may be moving and your moving slow, you get a bass line, go faster a 2nd sound should enter, slow down it filters out again, jump to a jog, you get the bass line, 2nd cue and now the 3rd layer.....this sort of sound system is used a lot in Game design since it helps create better dynamics and creates flexible 'hits' since the game doesn't really know when the player will do something.

I was told by my lecturer Max can do such things, do you have any idea?


So if I understand it correctly, you want to create a patch where certain sounds or musical elements fade in and out based on certain parameters ("walking speed" etc) being in a certain range.

Depending on how interactive you want to have everything, the simplest way I can think of to achieve this is to have a bunch of looping sound files, let's call them tracks, with a gain control for each track that is controlled by an external parameter.

I'm not sure how far you are with Max, but this is very easy if you have done the max and msp tutorials. Main ingredients: some audio playback component like groove~ or sfplay~, volume scaling such as gain~ and something to scale external input to the desired gain like scale~.

Of course you can make it as complex as you want, for example by generating parts of the music or soundscape within max instead of using sound files.

Thank you very much for your help, i will give it a go, I could just use the key object and select object to assign a button to start the process, would you know how to put a delay on each 'track' so say after holding down the down arrow key button for 5 secs the 2nd layer comes in 10 secs 3rd layer etc?

Thank you very much for your help,  i will give it a go, I could just use the key object and select object to assign a button to start the process, would you know how to put a delay on each 'track' so say after holding down the down arrow key button for 5 secs the 2nd layer comes in 10 secs 3rd layer etc?


Then you need to figure out some way to reset the counter, turn off the metro on keyup and slowly fade in the sound.

Then you need to figure out some way to reset the counter, turn off the metro on keyup and slowly fade in the sound.


thanks so so much, this helps immensely. may your life be full and prosperous!!

I had to do something similar to create a tool for making interactive soundscapes. I ended up using the r rbfi object from CNMAT.

In case anybody is interested. This video demos what I ended up making: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BlFSLJpgzcc

I had to do something similar to create a tool for making interactive soundscapes. I ended up using the r rbfi object from CNMAT.
 In case anybody is interested. This video demos what I ended up making: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BlFSLJpgzcc

Using [function] to define flexible fade-in and out points for your layers would also work well for this. I could probably come up with a basic example if you like. For playback groove~ is the most likely solution as I expect you also need to setup a looping system.

Also, if you've not checked them out already Wwise and Fmod are both free to play with and would provide a good model of the sort of functionality you could build in.

Using [function] to define flexible fade-in and out points for your layers would also work well for this. I could probably come up with a basic example if you like. For playback groove~ is the most likely solution as I expect you also need to setup a looping system. 

Also, if you've not checked them out already Wwise and Fmod are both free to play with and would provide a good model of the sort of functionality you could build in.


What is rbfi ? I don't see this in my 'everything CNMAT' folder.

Max/MSP controlled layering of 4 sounds (Dead Space)