Title: Multiple Pendulum – a chaotic chain of 1 to 10 pendulums as a modulator (M4L)
Hi all,
I’d like to share a device I’ve been working on: Multiple Pendulum, a Max for Live audio effect that simulates a chain of 1 to 10 linked pendulums and turns their motion into modulation and sound.
The idea came from a double pendulum patched in Pure Data: start it twice from almost the same position and after a few seconds the two runs have nothing in common. I kept using it to drive parameters, because the movement is neither periodic like an LFO nor memoryless like a random source: it has inertia, it speeds up and slows down, and all the masses are physically linked.
What it does
– 1 to 10 rods. Force (rigidity), length, gravity, damping, speed and substeps of the simulation.
– A Mapping column with one row per mass: choose x, y or speed, press Map, click any parameter on the same track. Min/Max as a percentage of the target’s own range, like Live’s LFO.
– Every mass is also a sine voice (pitch from height, level from speed, pan from x). Mute it to keep only the modulation.
– Factory presets plus user presets saved with the set.
Under the hood
– The physics is Verlet integration with rod constraints in small substeps, plus a gentle energy correction so the chain neither dies out nor explodes. It runs in a small C++ external in the audio thread; the interface is jsui/mgraphics.
– Mapping uses live.remote~ and the LOM. Mappings are stored by path and name, so they survive reopening a set and are released automatically when the target device or rod disappears.
Works with Live 11+ (Max 8.1 and later), Mac (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows.
Feedback, bug reports and ideas very welcome, especially on mappings that turned out interesting for you.
Daniele – BACCANO Instruments
Year
24/10/26
Location
Milan
Author
