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:
- Click and drag over them to highlight
- Click “Arrange” in the top menu bar
- 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:
- Click to select the desired patch cord
- Click “arrange” in the menu bar
- 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:
- Click the object to select it
- Click “View” in the top menu bar
- 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:
- Select the patch cord by clicking on it
- Click “object” in the top menu bar
- Scroll to and click “color”
- 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:
- Typing “b” to bring up a new object in an open, unlocked patcher
- Supplying it with the name “panel”
- Click “arrange” in the top menu bar
- 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.
Duane