Modules vs Snippets
Hey everyone!
I’m running into a Max/MSP question I haven’t been able to find a clear answer to. I’ve been looking into the difference between snippets and modules. From what I understand, snippets are more like copy-paste—if you change the original, it doesn’t update the others. But modules do update across patches, which is exactly what I’m looking for. The part I’m stuck on: how do you create your own folder structure for modules, and how can you make them show up in the Max sidebar? Would really appreciate any help or tips!
Thanks!
Simon
not sure what you mean with "modules" perhaps Abstractions?
Look at User Guide > Abstractions.
Abstraction must have a unique name and the path must be included in the "File Preferences" path. You can add Abstractions to you snippet.
Hey
With modules I mean this new feature in Max9, which is super usefull to drag in. I used abstractions before, but in this way I can easily drag them in as bpatchers.
Thanks for your help!
Simon
To make your snippets and abstractions available as modules, they need to be part of a Package. You can create your own package for this very purpose if you want to. You then need to organize your abstractions into the clippings folder of that package. In other words you would need:
Max 9/Packages/<your own package name>
package-info.json (required for the folder to be recognized as a package, check the doc linked above)
clippings
put your patcher files you want available as modules in here. They can be put in subfolders too, eg. to create categories.
a simple way to add custom patches and media to the sidebar (and eventually remove the annoying factory content) has yet to be found, the sidebar just displays everything which is found in the search path.
so if you want to use it to display your patches, make sure to organize their actual folder structure likewise, then it is at least halfway wysiwyg.
but you do not need to rely on the sidebar for that. max offers dozens of theoretically possible methods how to browse and access your custom patches and media content, except that you can not have a drag and drop option with it (this would require some js and/or quite some experience with thispatcher scripting and the mouse-releated objects)
you could create your own "sidebar" as a max patch and put it into /extras, you could use an umenu or coll which lets you browse and create objects, and of course there is the option to create a prototype or snippet from a single object such as [simon.synthesizer~] ...