sending a list of floats to poly

Hi,

I'm new to Max and I would appreciate some guidance. I looked through old topics, but I couldn't quite find an answer.

I built an 8x8 gameboard that sends max float values via arduino serial communication. Every time a token is placed, Max gets a 64 element list [zl 64 group].
Those elements are then unpacked into flonum objects (not sure if float objects would be preferred).

I can connect each of the 64 float values to a cycle~, but this method is too demanding on the CPU. I have tried to wire them all to a [poly~ mysynth 64] object that just consists of an in, a cycle~, and an out~, but apart from a brief clip when I place a new token, that route is not returning sound. I've also tried sending the list to the ~poly object without success.

What is the most efficient way to accomplish this task?