Michael Edwards

Hello all, I'm taking advantage of Max 7's ability to play back FLAC files. When I create an app with such functionality everything's fine on my OSX 10.10.5 machine but the same app claims it can't read the FLAC's on 10.7.5. Does anyone know why this might be? Is max taking advantage of some core audio / other osx routines which only came out since 10.7?

flac-and-sfplay

Max 7 still uses Quicktime to import mp3s & FLAC into a buffer~. Like in previous versions, the job is not made by Max. I guess it's also why splay~ can't play mp3s.

Thanks Jean-Francois, I appreciate the response.

My understanding was that Max 7 now makes it possible for sfplay~ to handle FLACS and M4As independently of quicktime. I don't think that's the case for buffer~s but may be wrong there.

In any case, for anyone who's interested I found the solution:

Like many others I was horrified at the 300MB+ size of apps generated with Max (as opposed to 30MB previously). Cycling offered a way round this via [standalone] in 7.0.6: AFAIK at least three new options were added: CEF Support, Gen Support, and Include C74 Resources. With fingers crossed I unchecked all of these (they were on by default) and thankfully my app worked. But on the 10.7.5 machine playback didn't work. Re-enabling Include C74 Resources made the problem go away though and I now have an app which can sfplay~ FLACs and gives no warnings in the Max window.

Now if I can just find out how to improve startup time I'll be a happy bunny.

I have another question about FLACs: several people have posted about the length of time it takes for a standalone to start up. I've followed guidelines about e.g. paths but startup time is still very long in my app. If I remove all the FLAC files (thus crippling the app but good for a test) then it starts rapidly. When I re-add the FLACs startup time becomes too long again.

Could it be that Max is decoding the FLACs on startup so that sfplay~ can just read linear PCMs?

I have another question about FLACs: several people have posted about the length of time it takes for a standalone to start up. I've followed guidelines about e.g. paths but startup time is still very long in my app. If I remove all the FLAC files (thus crippling the app but good for a test) then it starts rapidly. When I re-add the FLACs  startup time becomes too long again.

I just noticed you could play FLAC (and mp3/m4a as a matter of fact) with both sfplay~ and buffer objects.

This is strange because quicktime (7 or X) doesn't play FLAC on my computer.

Also quicktime is not supposed to be used by Max in 64 bits version right? Maybe another explanation then...

Other questions for everyone : is it stable to use FLAC in Max? Is it CPU/Memory intensive?

I already use it in some situations with Cubase, but I'm still reluctant to use it in Max.

That might be a game changer for me, since I'm stuck with a 256GB SSD drive... so any advices are welcome.

Hi Jean-François
I just noticed you could play FLAC (and mp3/m4a as a matter of fact) with both sfplay~ and buffer objects.
This is strange because quicktime (7 or X) doesn't play FLAC on my computer.
Also quicktime is not supposed to be used by Max in 64 bits version right? Maybe another explanation then...

Other questions for everyone : is it stable to use FLAC in Max? Is it CPU/Memory intensive?
I already use it in some situations with Cubase, but I'm still reluctant to use it in Max.
That might be a game changer for me, since I'm stuck with a 256GB SSD drive... so any advices are welcome.


Hi Julien, despite the unresolved issues around startup time as detailed in my post above, I'm happy to report that once the patch/app loads then it's completely stable. My project was beta-tested by quite a few people and no one reported any issue with the FLACs. Best, Michael

Hi Michael, it is my understanding that FLAC, ACC and MP3 files are being converted into AIF and WAV files that are stored temporarily somewhere in the /temp folder . This probably explains why loading takes so long. In addition, the temporary files can take up quite a bit of disk space as well.

IMHO Max leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to sound file playback and interfacing. Apart from the playlist~ object that got added in Max 7, not much has happened since MSP was first launched back in 1998. Some basic functionalities that I personally miss are:

- working with large (WAV64) sound files (past 2 Gb)

- an easy and straight-forward way of starting playback anywhere within the sound fil. This feature should in particular be added to playlist~.

- an easy way of linking sound files and automation data so that automation can be synced to sound file location.

IMHO Max leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to sound file playback and interfacing. Apart from the playlist~ object that got added in Max 7, not much has happened since MSP was first launched back in 1998. Some basic functionalities that I personally miss  are:

- working with large (WAV64) sound files (past 2 Gb)
- an easy and straight-forward way of starting playback anywhere within the sound fil. This feature should in particular be added to playlist~.
- an easy way of linking sound files and automation data so that automation can be synced to sound file location.


support for wav64 should be the first one!!!

FLAC and sfplay~