IA6 Practice ParagraphIA.

6 - Messageordering with trigger

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Fig. IA.40 Interna ls of th e monosynth subpatch

By selecting different configuratio ns of parameters that we have saved into the

preset object at th e lower left of t he patch, you can listen to a few examples
of timbre processing by means of differen t sett ings for t he envelope, along w ith
examp les that generate sequences of notes and intensity values. Remember that
you can call these previously recorded presets up by clicking on the darker dots
in the preset object, and that it is possible t o record a new configuration into
a preset by shift-clicking on a dot. To better understand how note sequence
are generated, take a look at t he patcher drunk - between (which, remember,
was shown in figure IA.38) and select different presets in order to see (and
hear!) th e various possibilities produced by the random number generator.
Let' s delve a little more deeply into the operation of the st e p parameter: we
know that this parameter indicates the maximum distance, minus 1, t hat can
occur between a random number and its successor. This means, for example,
that a step of 5 w ill cause a number selected from the interval Oto 4 to be added
when moving from one number to the next; a step equal to 1, by contrast, wi ll
result in a monotonous sequence built out of a single repeated number, since in
th is case, th e number to be added w ill always fa ll into the trivial interval of O to
0. When using a smallish value for the step parameter, perhaps 2 or 3, ident ical
notes will often be generated, w hich means t hat the step parameter is equal to
0 in many cases; if we want to be sure that two consecutive notes w ill always be
different, we need use a negative number for the step parameter (which is simply
a convention established by the programmer who created the drunk object).
A negative step size sent to the object wil l select an interval between 1 and the
absolute value of t he step parameter, minus 1. This guarantees that t he d istance
between o ne number and the next wi ll not be O; a step of -2, for example, w ill
ensure that the notes wi ll always move chromatical ly (all w ith a distance of 1),
while a step of -3 generates movement by either a who le step or a half step.

IA.6 MESSAGE ORDERING WITH TRIGGER

Continuing ou r presentation of fundamenta l Max/MSP objects, let's discuss
tr igger , an object that enables you to repeat an incoming message on
mult iple out lets. This object accepts a variable number of arguments; these
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