Step Sequencer Built in MaxMSP
September 23, 2009 – 7:41 pm by John Keston
I built this step sequencer in Max/MSP today as an exercise. My intent was a to build a simple step sequencer, however it got more and more complicated as time went on. This is probably not a tool that I’d actually use without some significant changes, but I learned quite a bit in the process of creating it.
The core of the sequencer is an itable object that contains the note sequence. The user interface items all have a green background. The first thing I wanted to be able to do was to allow the user to set the number of notes in the sequence and adjust the note range (click the image for a detailed view). Then I wanted to be able to randomize the notes regardless of the length and range of the sequence. I also added the ability for the user to set the velocity of each note in the sequence with a multislider object.
BPM, note length, amplitude envelope, and master volume are all also adjustable. After all that I added in the ability to send the sequence to a noteout object, so it can be played via MIDI. Here’s a clippy sequence I created using the tool.
5 Responses to “Step Sequencer Built in MaxMSP”
can these be used with the free runtime? totally lacking the funds for the full program and I am a total noob when it comes to max. Tried copying the code and saving them as .maxpat and I am getting nothing.
By patospurlock on Sep 23, 2009
So, sharing Max patches by copying them to the clipboard and then including them in a comment is not practical for more complex patches. Here’s a .zip file that contains the patch and a standalone app (MacOSX), so non-Max owners can play too.
http://audiocookbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/MonoStepSequencer.zip
By John Keston on Sep 25, 2009