trying to figure out the easiest way to combine two max patches to make a better patch, please help
Hi
I am trying to figure out the easiest way to combine two max patches to make a better patch, Could you please help?
I have downloaded these two floating mixer patches (in the pic below) from maxforlive.com and there are parts that i really like of each of them, now i want to combine them into one patch and customize it.
I've tried copying and pasting the objects in presentation view of both patches into the presentation view of the other patch. When i do this, the pasted objects are not working either way (they are not affecting or monitoring live parameters at all) and the patcher mode/view does not seem to include all of the connections between objects.
I've also tried copy and pasting the objects in the patcher view from both patches into the patcher mode/view of the other patch. When i do this, the patcher mode of the patch looks like it was fully copied, but its still not working at all with Live to affect or change live parameters.
What do i need to do to successfully combine these patches?
Also, the top patch (called Live_Mixer) has many features/objects that i do not want to include in my customized patch. I've tried analyzing the patch in edit/unlocked mode to see how it works and understand which objects are controlling the objects/features that i want to use in presentation mode, but still haven't been able to understand most of it yet. When i am customizing my own patch, can i simply selectively copy+paste (or delete) the specific features/objects that i want (or don't want) in presentation view? Or do i need to copy+paste all of the correct objects from the patcher view to make it work? (or in other words, can i successfully copy and paste a volume fader from presentation mode or do i need to copy and paste the objects that the the volume fader is composed of in patcher mode?)
Thanks, Dan
The UI is only a small part of the functionality and cannot be copied alone.
To integrate different instruments, you would need to understand their functionality at least in terms of inputs and outputs, so you can merge the two.
Hard to say more with such sparse info.
Thanks, that makes sense. By the UI, you mean the objects in the presentation mode (as opposed to the objects that are only in patching mode) , correct?
With this in mind, I understand why copying and pasting the objects in the presentation mode did not work. But i still don't understand why I'm having difficulty when i copy and paste all the objects from the patching mode to the patching mode of another patcher. When i copy all objects from the patcher mode of one patcher to another, shouldn't this correctly copy all of the functionality from the first patcher?
I tried this a couple times last month and had some level of success with it, but it never worked completely and kept breaking or not acting as expected. I just tried combining the patchers again and could not get the 2nd patcher to work at all when it was combined with the 1st patcher. I’ll explain what I did in detail here and share screenshots to explain.
If its helpful, here are links to the patches that im using:
This is the float mixer device in presentation view. There are two patches here- the one in the back sits in the device view in Ableton live and just serves to launch the mixer window when I hit the ‘Mixer’ button.
Here is the same patches in Patching Mode:
Here is the ‘Live Mixer for Mira’ device in presentation mode. This device works the same as the other in that theres 2 patches and the one in the back just launches the main mixer window:
Actually, there is a 3rd patch that is included in this device that I don’t understand. It opens automatically whenever I launch the device from Live. It has nothing in the presentation view. Not sure if it matters, but here it is:
This is the patching mode view of the ‘Live Mixer for Mira’ device (not including the 3rd patch, just the 1st 2 that were shown in presentation mode view above)
This patch is alot bigger, so I also took a couple more zoomed in screenshots that you can see here if its easier
I tried copying each into eachother in the past, but this time I decided to try copying the first patch described (the one called ‘Float Mixer') into that second one (the mixer for Mira) because the first one looked a lot simpler. I moved over the objects in the 'Mixer for Mira' patches to make room, then I copy and pasted all of the objects from both the Presentation mode and the patcher mode (respectively) of the 'Float Mixer' into the 'Mixer for Mira’ patch.
This is what the patcher mode view now looks like:
This Is what the presentation mode now looks like:
As you can see, the faders in the ‘Float Mixer’ patch that I copied over show no green signal when they are combined. (Note how you can see the green signals in the first pictures of the patch, when it wasn’t combined. Music is playing while I took this screenshot in the combined patch but the faders show nothing).
So what do I need to do to make these patches function properly as one patch? I’m guessing that it could have something to do my not understanding the inputs and outputs, but don’t understand what it could be since I copied everything that was in the patches. What is the next step that I should take?
Please let me know if there’s any other info that i can provide to help diagnose the issue.
Thanks, Dan
Btw: sorry for all the dropbox links, i tried to upload regular pics but the site wouldnt let me reply
hey, i’m still trying to figure this out. can someone please offer some guidance?
I do not own M4L and have no experience with it. Maybe someone else!
Can anybody else please help?
Also, I’m wondering if this should be relatively simple or if it requires a level of complexity that would make it a lot easier for me to find 1-1 instruction via Skype or hire somebody to build it. Should I be able to learn it fairly easily from doing it on my own and corresponding via this forum or do i need to pay for some help?