Author: Nate

We’ve been an avid user of Max for over a decade and if there’s one thing we wish we’d done sooner, it’d be to patch more legibly.

Aligning objects, color coding, and adding comments to your patches are really good habits to start forming now. Especially if you’re collaborating on a patch… or if you’re the type of person who works feverishly on a project, stops short of completion, buries the work on some hard drive, digs it up three years later, and proceeds to lament your previous self’s vulgar and tasteless patching practices.  

That being said, in this post we’re going to break down our favorite approaches to patching legibly. Please consider the children as you acquire your favorite non-alcoholic beverage. 

Object Alignment

Object alignment can not only save space, but also enhance legibility. To align objects: 

1. Click and drag over them to highlight 
2. Click “Arrange” in the top menu bar 
3. Scroll down to and click “auto align.”
   

You also have other alignment options available to you under the same drop-down menu via the “align” subitem. 

Pro-Tip: try to pick up on all the available keyboard shortcuts and implement them in your patching. Having your hotkeys memorized is a good way to alleviate the frustration of constantly mousing around any piece of software. 

Routing Patch Cords

We also recommend routing your patch cords. To align a patch cord: 

1. Click to select the desired patch cord 
2. Click “arrange” in the menu bar
3. Navigate to and click “route patch cords.” 

Pro-Tip: You can select multiple patch cables by holding down your option key as you click and drag over them. 

Better yet, you can also open a patch cord’s context menu by by control + clicking on it. Here you will see all the parameters by which you can modify a patch cord’s appearance and behavior. 

You can also create segmented patch cords by clicking “Options” in the menu bar and checking “segmented patch cords.” This is helpful for situations wherein you find yourself needing to route a patch cord back up to an object at the top of your patch. 

Color Coding

Color coding is a great way to indicate important objects and their respective patch cords. Personally, I always modify the appearance of any sub-patcher by both augmenting its font size and changing its border color. 

To change an object’s colors:

1. Click the object to select it
2. Click “View” in the top menu bar
3. Scroll down to and click “Inspector Window” 

Within the object’s inspector you will see three color swatches for modifying the object’s background, border, and text colors. Click the desired swatch and a simple panel for color selection pops up. You can scroll through hues using the top right slider or click the multi-colored wheel icon in the top left, which will reveal a floating window with a lot more options. 

Pro-Tip: We highly recommend configuring your “user palette.” To add a color, first make sure you are satisfied with its appearance, then click on one of the blank squares at the bottom of the swatch’s popup panel. 

Pro-Tip: Another way to view the inspector (aside from the keyboard shortcut) would be to hover your mouse cursor over the left side your desired object until a yellow arrow pops. Click the yellow arrow and navigate to and click “inspector.” 

To change the color of a patch cord:

1. Select the patch cord by clicking on it
2. Click “object” in the top menu bar
3. Scroll to and click “color” 
4. Make your choice

Pro-Tip: You can also change the color of a patch cord through it’s context menu!

Panels

You can add panel objects to the background of segments of patching. This can help highlight important parts of your patch and lead the eye to its more critical components. Create a panel object by:

1. Typing “b” to bring up a new object in an open, unlocked patcher
2. Supplying it with the name “panel” 
3. Click “arrange” in the top menu bar
4. Navigate to and click “send to back”

From there you can modify the panel’s border and interior colors from within the panel’s inspector window. 

Pro-Tip: Once you’re satisfied with the panel’s appearance and position in the patcher, we recommend including it in the background of the patcher. Do this by clicking “Arrange” in the top menu bar then scrolling down to and clicking “Include in Background.” Now click “View” in the top menu bar, scroll down to and click “Lock Background.” Now the panel is unaffected by mouse / trackpad controls. 

Comments

Comments can help point out the more critical functions within a patch. You can add notes in the form of text bubbles or, for those of us who need a little help managing the forward momentum of our project, create simple to-do lists.

To create a comment, press your “c” key while in an opened, unlocked patcher. Immediately you can start typing your notes into the comment box. The comment’s appearance can be modified through its inspector window, including whether or not the comment appears as a box or a text bubble.   

The Max Toolbox

This addition to Max provides an extensive series of shortcuts for object alignment, distribution, and connection. Download and additional information available at: https://github.com/natcl/maxtoolbox/

A video demonstrating the capabilities of the Max Toolbox can be seen HERE

While this tool is optimized for users of Max 7, I have tested it using Live 10 Suite running the bundled version of Max (8.0.4) and it works fine. Once downloaded, you will need to move the Max Toolbox folder into the following directory (OS X): 

/Apps/Ableton Live 10 Suite

> control+click to view context menu > click “Show Package Contents” 

/Contents/App-Resources/Max 

>control+click to view context menu > click “Show Package Contents”

/Contents/Resources/C74/extras 

Consistently employing these techniques in my patching practices have saved me a tremendous amount of banging my head against the wall. In writing this post, it’s been my hope that they will help you as well. 

It’s also my hope that you will do literally everything I’ve said here before you even briefly consider collaborating with another innocent human being on a patch. 

You know who you are. 

Above is a shot of my DIY USB foot-switch. The construction is relatively simple for those who just want a simple box with some buttons. 

For starters, you will need a project box…

You can buy these at electronics shops and hardware stores, but I recommend searching online and potentially getting a better deal. 

The above shot is of a momentary (push on/off) switch. These can also be purchased at electronics shops / hardware stores (but I, likewise, recommend searching for them online (RIP RadioShack)). Keep in mind, these switches should be mounted to the top of the project box before soldering any connections. 

Next, you will need an old (but still functional) USB QWERTY keyboard from which to extract the circuit board.

Remove the keyboard’s plastic casing by simply popping off the keys and removing the screws. Unscrew the board from within. You will need a mini-screwdriver set for this. I also recommend mounting the board onto a piece of cardboard with electrical tape. This provides extra surface stability during the soldering portion of the project. 

Secure this apparatus to the backing plate of the project box. 

You can now test for whether or not two pins will complete a circuit, thereby producing a character. Take a small piece of wire and press each end to two different pins. I recommend ribbon wire as it is very fine and, therefore, easy to manipulate.

Do this while the board is connected to your computer via the USB port and a word processing application is running. If you make a successful connection, it will show within the word document as a singular character. This can be tedious as the process of elimination through trial and error can prove to be lengthy. 

Once you’ve determined which pins produce the desired characters, the soldering can begin. Prepare your lengths of wire. Strip the rubber casing from the wire lengths, exposing about a 1/2” of the copper thread on each end. 

Solder two lengths of wire (one for each pin) to each of the switches. 

That being done, the free ends of each wire can be soldered to their respective pins on the board. Be sure the board is not plugged into your computer before attempting to solder. 

Taping the excess lengths of wire down to the cardboard backing will help maintain what visual clarity you can. It will also help maintain the connections after you’ve fixed the backing plate to the top of the box. 

You will end up with a beautiful mess, like this. 

Notice this small hole in the side of the box is there so the USB cable is not inhibited by the plastic casing in any way. Also, the numbers and logos were painted on with white out and then smoothed out with a black marker. Decorating your box in any way will definitely add a presentably fun dimension to it. Show the world that you actually respect yourself by taking the time to “pretty your MIDI.” 

I’ve used this box with Ableton Live to control several loopers within the session (one button per looper, one looper per track).

In a typical performance, I will use this to capture and loop sounds from a bass guitar (amongst other instruments) and then remix and manipulate these loops with MIDI controlled effects. 

The box can have many other performance applications with your DAW so long as your software can utilize keystrokes for parameter modulation.

This page outlines the step by step process for building your own contact microphone. Let’s begin. First you will need an audio cable. I used an unbalanced 1/4” cable, shown below.

Notice I have stripped one half of the cable. This is done so we can later connect the exposed wires to a piezo transducer (shown below). Also notice the primary wire mesh has been twisted into a more solid thread.

This piezo element is encased in a plastic shell. The shell will need to be removed in order to extract the metal disc from within.

This transducer was purchased at an electronics shop, but I recommend looking online for those that are without the casing and, therefore, much less expensive.

We are now ready to connect the transducer to the audio cable.

The “mesh thread” is twisted with the wire that has come pre-soldered directly to the metallic portion of the disc, along the outer edge (in this case, the black wire). The wire within the inner tubing of the audio cable is twisted with the wire leading to the white, central pad of the piezo element (red wire).

A little solder for good measure.

I simply wrapped the wires and disc up with electrical tape, giving the finished product a distinctly “homemade” look. But, heat shrink tubing will lend a much more professional visual aesthetic to your mic. This is done to protect the disc and the wire connections.

I use my contact mic for triggering audio in max/MSP by taping it to a practice pad and drumming as I wish while max interpret the spikes in the audio as “note on” messages for a randomized synthesizer  (likewise built in max).

Below is a short video demonstrating the functionality of a DIY contact mic being used to trigger a sample via Max for Live.

DISCLAIMER: You will notice that, in this demonstration, I am playing directly on the contact mic. THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED. I did this to demonstrate the sensitivity of the piezzo element. Direct contact with the element can be damaging if done with enough force.

You can download this device as well as our highly coveted cowbell sample by clicking here.