quad playback using sfplay
hi,
i'm planning some performances in quad using max to play back prerecorded sounds.
these sounds are all in stereo and they're made up of several layers and edited in pro tools. most of 'm have a lot of panning going on already, embedded in the sound file.
i'm wondering what the best way would be to turn these stereo sounds into quad sounds. i could of course just use these stereo source files and then move the two channels across four outputs somehow.
since my source files are made up of several layers and have built-in panning movements, i'm thinking it might be more interesting to split them up into two stereo bounces in pro tools and have two stereo sfplayers in max play these tracks in sync, over four separate outputs. i know sfplay allows for more-than-two channels soundfiles, but i don't think pro tools allows me to finalize/"bounce" to more than two tracks.
i also realize that this means the panning movements are built-in, and i won't be able to move anything from say, speaker 1 to 4 in sequence.
if i send a "1" message to two sfplay objects at once will they play back exactly in sync?
i'm basically just thinking out loud. any thoughts on this?
many thanks for any feedback!
not sure about sample accuracy of sfplay. i guess buffer~ related approaches are better suited for that.
what you could also do is bounce each channel from protools and put them in a 4 channel wav/aif using an audio editor.
and while you're at it, why not bounce 'm without any panning so you can do it all live in max?
i know sfplay allows for more-than-two channels soundfiles, but i don't think pro tools allows me to finalize/"bounce" to more than two tracks.
Even if it did, it may not work with sfplay~. I haven't checked with recent versions, but I know with Digital Performer 4/5 I was able to save mutlichannel AIFF files but they would not open in sfplay~ (the reverse was true as well, multichannel files recorded with sfrecord~ seemed not to be compatible with Digital Performer). I came accross this great free app someone linked 4 years ago on the forum called De-Interleaver. This program will deinterleave audio files of arbitrary number of channels or interleave an arbitrary number of mono files (works with AIFF, WAV, and CAF files). You can download it here:
not sure about sample accuracy of sfplay.
sfplay~ has the option to trigger cues with sample accuracy, so this syncs up multiple sfplay~ no problem (see the "signal-inputs" tab in the sfplay~ help file in Max6—this feature has existed since at least MaxMSP 4.5 so you can find it a subpatch in those help files as well). Also with overdrive and scheduler in audio interrupt I've been able to successfully trigger multilple sfplay~ in sync without using signals (might be not reliable if you have a lot of other scheduler stuff running in the patch).
Digital Performer 4/5 I was able to save mutlichannel AIFF files but they would not open in sfplay~ (the reverse was true as well, multichannel files recorded with sfrecord~ seemed not to be compatible with Digital Performer)
C74 is aware of problems with Max' way of working with multichannels WAVE files. They told me there may be a fix for 6.0.5...
There are also problems with DP and multichannels AIFF files, but I suspect the reason is on DP's side.
Audacity can export multichannel files too, with no need to first deinterleave the sources.
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C74 is aware of problems with Max' way of working with multichannels WAVE files. They told me there may be a fix for 6.0.5...
Cool.
Audacity can export multichannel files too, with no need to first deinterleave the sources.
I used to use Audacity to handle that, but I found this De-Interleaver program works better for my workflow.
thanks very much guys!
this particular patch is more for playback/outboard processing situations and less for projects where i'm really tweaking my sounds in realtime with max, and the soundfiles are long, so i'd like to use sfplay.
"Also with overdrive and scheduler in audio interrupt I've been able to successfully trigger multilple sfplay~ in sync without using signals (might be not reliable if you have a lot of other scheduler stuff running in the patch)."
you mean you'd basically just connect a toggle to multiple sfplay objects and they would sync up fine? that's my experience testing just now..
i've basically just been splitting my stereo sounds up into two stereo pairs and triggering two players at the same time.
thanks for the audacity tip also!
you mean you'd basically just connect a toggle to multiple sfplay objects and they would sync up fine? that's my experience testing just now..
I think you would need to side the toggle through pipe 0to send it to the scheduler thread.
But if you want to be sure they are in sync, why not start them with a signal by connecting toggle to sig~ to all of your sfplay~
roth, thanks very much for those tips!
will look into what exactly the scheduler is (i don't know at the moment to be honest) and why, as you seem to suggest, driving multiple sfplay objects with a signal as opposed to a message would sync them up more precisely.
thanks!