1.5 Practice Paragraph1.

5 - Introduction to work ing wit h sampled sound

1) First, opeo an audio file.

2) After opening ~
the file, send a 1. · It is possible to loop the file playback.
To stop playback, 1 loop on
send a o. 1 -r-

You can also change the playback speed.

Clicking on the
toggle object you 1------'-'"~ '2,. double speed
can switch
between O and 1 ~ 0.5 half speed

1....- _ __;;;,--
~- 1 nonnal speed

......2
sfplay-
~

•~• 2en
O ,.
the file has finished playing,
a bang is emitted .

Fig. 1.53 The f ile O1_14_audiofile.maxpat

To play a f ile, send the number 1, to stop it send the number 0. The graphical
toggle object (which is the litt le square marked w ith the number 2 in the
patch, and which is the f ift h object from the left in the palette) enables you to
send exactly these two num bers; by clicking on the object, you toggle the two
object on and off (wh ich is shown by th e presence or absence of an X inside
the object). and you cause the object to send t he values 1 and 0, respectively.
By using the comm and "loop 7 ", it is also possible to play the fi le as a loop
(during which the fi le repeats indef initely); to deactivate loop ing, send the com-
mand "loop O". Finally, t he command "speed", fol lowed by a number, enables
you to change the speed at which the f ile is played. '1' mean normal velocity,
'2' doub le velocity, 'OS half-speed, and so forth_40
In the patch, two gain - objects are connected to cont rol the volume of a
stereophon ic sound. Note that there is a patch cord cross-connecting the tw o
gain- objects; in th is mode the gain- object on the left controls that on the
right. If you modify the fader posit ion of t he left-hand ga in -, you w ill see the .
right fad er change itself to the same value. If, however, you change the right
fader directly, the left fader doesn't move, because there is only a patch cord
go ing from left to the right, but not vice versa. This common ly used technique
makes it convenient to change the volume using a single fader, but allows the
faders to differ when they need to .

MANAGING FILESWITH THE FILEBROWSER

A very convenient system for opening files from sf p l a y - is provided by the
File Browser (as seen in f igure 1.54). This is a panel (that can be called up from
the File menu, or by typing <Comma nd-b/Control-b>) that enables you to view,
open, or drag any files into your patches that are contained in Max' search path
(which can be configur ed in the File Preferencesw indow).

40 sf play- recognizes many other commands. Call up th e help file for sf play- (<Alt -click> on
t he object in edit mode) t o scope out all of t he possibilities.
100