Adding MIDI output to Push Game of Live

A step-by-step description for how to turn the Game of Live example from Building Max Devices into a sequencer as demonstrated in the video by Side Brain.

Opening Game of Live

  • Make sure you have the latest Building Max Devices Pack installed.
  • In the Packs place, go to the Building Max Devices Pack, choose Part 4 - Examples, Push, Game of Live, and add the Game of Live device to your set.
  • Right-click the title bar of the Game of Lice device and choose Edit in Max.
  • Unfreeze the device by clicking the snowflake icon in the bottom bar.
  • Go to patching mode by clicking the Patching Mode button in the bottom bar.
  • Make the window larger to fit more of the patch on your screen.

Copying Clock from Step Arp

  • Make sure you have the latest version of the Sequencers Pack.
  • From the Sequencers Pack, add Step Arp to your set.
  • As before, right-click the title bar of Step Arp, Edit in Max, Unfreeze and go to Patching Mode.
  • Make the window larger.
  • Select the following elements:
    • The Clock and ClockMod abstractions
    • The TimeDiv subpatcher and everything connected to it
    • The SwingMap subpatcher and the live.numbox connected to it
    • The loadmess 1
    • The plugsync~ and change objects
    • The +1 that follows the ClockMod abstraction
  • Copy the selected elements

Pasting in Game of Live

  • Go back to the Game of Live window in Max and paste.
  • Notice that the objects you pasted are selected. Move this selection to an empty part of the window.
  • In case the abstractions are shown as inactive, copy the dependencies from Step Arp (see next paragraph).

Copying dependencies from Step Arp

  • Go back to the Step Arp window, and press the Show Containing Project icon.
  • In the Project window, click the Show Project Folder button to show the project folder on your disk.
  • Do the same for Game of Live
  • Select the files in the Step Arp folder and copy them to the Game of Live folder.
  • Save the Game of Live device as Game of Live Edit.
  • In the patch, remove the pasted objects, then undo this to make them re-appear. Max should now find the missing dependencies.

Connecting the clock and outputting MIDI

  • In the Game of Live patch, connect Clock to ClockMod and connect ClockMod via te + 1 to the live.grid UI object.
  • Disconnect the loadmess 0 from Clock, connect it to the 4th inlet of ClockMod. Then change its argument from 1 to 8.
  • Connect the first outlet of live.grid to a new route 0.
  • Connect the second outlet of route 0 to an iter, the first outlet of iter to a + 64, that to a makenote 100 200 and finally to a makenote.
  • You can subsitute the 64 with any number you find appriopriate for the base pitch, the 100 for the velocity and the 200 for the note length.

Regenerating on the beat

  • Remove the 3 objects surrounding the Play button
  • Connect the output of plugsync~ to the Play button
  • Connect the Play button via a gate to the v8 script object
  • Create a new live.numbox, connect it to a * 8, connect that to the second inlet of a % 16, that to a sel 0 and finally to the second inlet of the gate.
  • Open the Inspector for the live.numbox and give an appropriate Long Name attribute value, such as "ChangeLoops"

Finishing up

  • Remove midiin and midiout
  • To enhance the Push experience, you can connect the output of ClockMod via a deferlow to a new inlet of the GetNoteColors subpatcher and use that to display a play progress line on the pads.
  • By adding a new live.banks object, you can specify which of the device parameters show up on the Push encoders and buttons.
  • Back in Presentation Mode, you can move the newly added UI objects to the left of the interface so they fit in the existing layout nicely.

Using the device

  • Save and close the device to start using it in Live.
  • To make sure you keep all dependencies together, you can freeze the device. If you want you can now move it to a different location on your disk.
  • Alternatively, to continue developing the device, you may want to move it unfrozen together with its dependencies to a folder of your choosing.

For more about changing or building devices, have a look at the Building Max Devices Pack or the Max for Live Production Guidelines.

Download

You can download the finished device here.