Cory Metcalf

By now you have probably heard about RNBO, our new Max add-on that allows you to develop audio in Max then export it, exactly as it sounds, for use in web applications, hardware devices, Audio Plugins, or even as Max external objects. If you haven’t, you can learn more about it here. While all of us here at Cycling ’74 are very excited that RNBO has been released, we’re much more excited to see what people will do with it!

To make jumping in and learning and exploring RNBO as fun and seamless as possible, we have created an online content space at rnbo.cycling74.com.

Whether you are new to Max and want to jump straight in or are already well traveled in the Max ecosystem, this is the ideal place to learn all about what RNBO has to offer.

With video and text tutorials, object and operator reference pages, export target configuration guides, and much more, rnbo.cycling74.com has everything you’ll want to know for leveraging RNBO in your creative projects and bringing them to places you may not have imagined. From creating your first RNBO patch to understanding polyphony (which, by the way, is so much simpler than it’s ever been!), you’ll find everything you need for a successful and exciting journey into the world of RNBO.

The site is broken into three primary sections - Learn, Explore, and Reference.

Learn provides video and text based tutorials that cover the core elements of RNBO technology and how to use them. It also introduces the various Export Targets and provides information on export configuration and special topics related to each target, as well as some information on how to use the raw code exports for Web Audio and C++. 

Explore is where you can see RNBO in action. Here you will find various higher level RNBO examples as well as project templates for using exported code. You will also find information about the first two RNBO Packages, RNBO Guitar Pedals and RNBO Synth Building Blocks, both available from the Max Package Manager.

In Reference you will find information about all Objects and Operators, Codebox Operators for RNBO’s text-based codebox objects, and the JS and C++ API’s. This information is all versioned, meaning we maintain a copy for each release version of RNBO, so you’ll always be able to find the reference that relates specifically to your version of the software, which can be useful if you need to use an older version for reasons such as compatibility or maintaining legacy hardware.

We hope you will find this to be a valuable resource as you begin to investigate the wide world of possibilities that RNBO has to offer. From all of us, Happy Patching!

rnbo_user.jpeg

By now you have probably heard about RNBO, our new Max add-on that allows you to develop audio in Max then export it, exactly as it sounds, for use in web applications, hardware devices, Audio Plugins, or even as Max external objects. If you haven’t, here’s a quick guide to help you get started exploring RNBO resources….


rnbo-everything-you-need-to-know-all-in-one-place

RNBO - Everything You Need to Know, All in One Place

Eldar Sadykov

SwiftRNBO is a translation layer between a Swift-based Apple platform project and C++ code that was exported using Cycling '74 RNBO software. It requires no knowledge of C++ to use and allows any Apple platform developer familiar with the Cycling '74 Max programming environment to build sophisticated and efficient audio applications with the ease of use of Swift and SwiftUI.

SwiftRNBO is a translation layer between a Swift-based Apple platform project and C++ code that was exported using Cycling '74 RNBO ... 

swiftrnbo

SwiftRNBO

Isabel Kaspriskie

RNBO, released this past month, is the new kid on the block for Max code generation. At first glance, you may be tempted to think that gen~ and RNBO are kind of the same thing. After all, both prominently feature “code generation.” You patch together objects in a Max-like way, and something magical is waiting behind the scenes, ready to compile your patch and stick it into the Max audio graph. Even cooler, you can get a C++ code export from your patch and use it separately from Max!

So in a world with both gen~ and RNBO, how do the two coexist? In this article, I’ll break down the intertwined goals and purposes of both technologies.

Processing buffers and processing samples

Like Max and most audio applications, RNBO works on chunks of audio data, sometimes called buffers or signal vectors. This technique of I/O buffering improves performance but makes it either difficult or impossible to implement DSP algorithms using just built-in Max or RNBO objects. This is because with many DSP algorithms (like filters, choruses, reverbs, oscillators, or physical models, to name a few), you will need things like single-sample feedback loops. (Note: This is a slight simplification. Two exceptions to the "RNBO is vector-processing only" rule are with RNBO's expr~ and the codebox~ operators which do allow you to work at the single-sample level. See more about RNBO codebox~ in the docs!)

Fortunately, single-sample processing is what gen~ was made for. Since Max and RNBO both need single-sample patching environments, gen~ is available for both!

A somewhat subtle beauty of this is that all of the custom gendsp you’ve written or collected over the years translates directly to RNBO and “just works.” Not only is gen~ cross-platform (you don’t need to compile gen~ separately for Windows or Mac like you would with an external), but it is cross-environment between Max and RNBO. Further, with the @exposeparameters 1 attribute for gen~ inside RNBO, you don’t need to do any extra work to have gen~ parameters show up in RNBO exports! (For more information, see the official documentation on gen~ inside RNBO.)

Bringing code generation to more familiar places

The first release of gen~ occurred in 2011, and it was the first time code generation was possible in Max. Exporting this generated code was a “bonus feature” that wasn’t the original purpose of gen~, but it inspired a number of projects like the Electrosmith Daisypatch Oopsy package and the gen~ plugin export JUCE wrapper.

Gen made clear the power of code generation, and it was the first step towards solving what folks at Cycling ‘74 refer to as the “trapped in Max problem.” The problem was that gen~ is specialized to solving problems of lower-level DSP prototyping, and doesn’t contain UI objects, MIDI I/O, or other higher-level objects like anti-aliased oscillators, FFTs, filters, and more.

With RNBO, code export, not just code generation, is a guiding design principle. This separation of concerns between RNBO and gen~ is key in understanding their relationship – by letting RNBO focus on being a friendly and familiar patching environment, gen~ doesn’t need to expand to include MIDI or event processing.

At the same time, RNBO doesn’t need to dip down into the low levels of single-sample processing because, well, gen~ is just there!

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Let's break down the similarities and differences between the two code generation technologies available in Max: RNBO and gen~.

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