1. 1 Practice Paragraph 1.

1 - First steps wit h Max/MSP

the Documentat ion Works", wh ich you wi ll explain how t o move betw een the
many sections and how to fin d discussions that will be pert inent to you r ow n
needs. We reit erate, t hough, th at while it may be helpful, taking such a tour
is not absolute ly necessary fo r the comprehension of this book . There are also
help patches for all of t he individual objects foun d in Max. When you are in edit
mode, <A lt -Click> on an object (w ithout dragging), and a help patch relevant
to the clicked object w ill open. This patch wi ll be fu lly functiona l, and w ill sum-
marize the principal characteristics of the object. <A lt-Cl ick> while in edit mode
on t he cycle- object, fo r example, w ill bring up the help patch seen in figure
1.14 (wh ich again may be q uite differe nt in different versions of Max/MSP).

cyc/e- open cycle-- reference

raote 10<,kuposcillator
The cyc le- object f1 on inte rpolming oscillator that reads repea tedly tr.rough one cyde of a waveform. using a wavetable
of 512 ~amptes. Its. defau lt wave form is one cyc le of a cos.ine w<we . ft can use other waveform s by access ing samples
froma buffer---object, The 513th sample in the wavetable source {th.ebtttt.er...) is used forintcrpol.:itionbeyond the 512th
sample. For repeat ing waves . it's usually dc si'able tor the 513t.h samole to be the s.yn.e as the first sam~c , so there w ill
be no d1seont1nultywhen the wavetorm wraps around &-om the end !.othe beginning.If onty 512 samples are available,
cycle ... anumes a 5 13th sample equal to the 1st sample .This is the caso for the cycle- object's default.cosine waveform .
, you shoUtdmake tnc S13th sample the same as the 512 th sampl e , or omit
It this is what you wont for ott.er w ave fOfTTIS
the 513th s.amplo.
4. Using your tunction
3. Using frequency inpu!
p gonerote,buffer-

I. argument
2. Omen by ph.,se only (frcquenc,1 is 0): ~
S:!JJ!2,
§oe , ... buffsky 11.6 1

sels freqse ncy frequency input phasor- 660 r- iooomo•• 22.5

{defuuU O} (float or sign.JI) "" phase !!;O.: I _
cycle::440 cycle- input (floa t ~cJe - buflsky
,.,,. ,., or signal) C)'clo- -

::-o.r :-_0.2 : -
·-0 .2
l. ro:---i
- r--'
listen?
....... ........... ... ..
·•... ..... • ...0.
,.,,.
··· ....
········ ..····•• .......•··········
.::·.·.
·.····· ·······
Symbolorgumont-sets name of
buffer- to playfrom. Addition.::ilint
argumentoft-erthat tets sample
offset intotne buff-er
-- (default O)
~~~,·~ ······
ISeeAloo :
[Objects:

Fig. 1.14 A help patch

As you can see, many d ifferent characteristics of the cycle- object are
explained by t his patch. A menu at the bottom right of the window under the
See Also label extends the scope of t he infor mation, by providing a way to call
up additi onal help on objects that are related to cycle-, or are often used wit h
it. Clicking on t he items in th is menu w ill open either additi onal help patches
for related objects, or tutoria ls in which t he target object is used, and wh ich
can be tinkere d w it h to increase yo ur understand ing of th e object. Another
resource in t his w indow is a link to t he reference manual, entitled open cyc!e-
reference, w hich can be found at t he very top of the help patch on the right.
Clicking on th is link wil l bring up a reference page t hat explains in great detail
all of the characteristics of th e eye le- object. Such reference pages are very
usefu l for discovering and/or remembering details needed fo r your patching
activities. W hether or not you read the deeper explanatory material contained
in a help patch such as thi s o ne, we st ill recommend t hat you take a peek ! They
are working patches t hat can teach a great deal about the practical techniques
and specialized vocabulary used in Max.
64