When you make a generative Max patch like we did last time, you can play the sound using the operating system’s built-in synthesizer, though it doesn’t sound great. You can also send the MIDI notes to an external software synthesizer using the virtual MIDI ports Max creates.

Another option is to render the audio within Max, using the native MSP audio objects. We will do that soon, but for this assignment we’ll do something easier: work with an add-on package for Max called Auzzie. This will let us focus on generating sound quickly, add effects, and experiment with audio routing possibilities.

We will rely on the note-generating techniques we explored in the last assignment.

How to Do This Exercise

Working on the assignment is a three-stage process.

1. Download Exercise 2 Max Tips. This is a folder of Max patches that will give you an introduction to Auzzie and audio routing concepts. Open them in Max in order (part 1, then part 2, etc.), reading the comments and operating the patches.
2. Make a patch that contains at least two layers of sound, each using a synthesizer and effects. Drive the synthesizer using a generative note machine like the one you made for Exercise 1. (We refer to this as a “note generator” below — a metro-driven network of objects that generates MIDI note messages.) Control the behavior and volume of layers using Max sliders, which you can create using the ‘s’ key. By default, these emit integers between 0 and 127. You can scale these into the right range for Auzzie.
3. If necessary, initialize your Auzzie modules with values that take effect when you open the patch file.

See the Requirements and Suggestions section below for details.

Requirements and Suggestions

• Each layer must start with a synthesizer module: WAVR, NOISR, FMODR, or STRUMR. Each of these accepts MIDI notes in the same way (from makenote connected to pack).
• You could use one note generator to feed both layers, or you could use separate generators, whose metro objects you start from the same toggle. Or keep the timing of the two layers entirely independent. For example, one stream could be fast and another could be slow, with long notes and slow attack and release times.
• Put a FADR (or FADR-H) module at the end (bottom) of each layer. This lets you control the volume of each layer independently before it reaches the output module. The output modules are OUT and OUT-H. The only difference between them is that the latter is horizontal.
• Create an effects chain for each layer — e.g., connect two or three effects in series between the synthesizer and the layer’s fader.
• In addition, use at least one effects send, for a delay or reverb. You could have one send effect per layer or one shared by both layers.

  If the latter, be sure to feed the effects send from the outputs of the layer faders. That is, the send should be a post-fader send. Otherwise, you could be hearing the send effect for a layer whose fader is down all the way.

• You may see evidence of clipping on the meters built into the FADR and some other Auzzie modules. (The top portion of the meter lights up orange or red.) It’s important to know that this affects your final output only when you see it on the final meter built in to the OUT (or OUT-H) module.
• Send some initial values into Auzzie modules, triggered by a loadbang object passed through a delay object, which lets the Auzzie modules settle down a bit before receiving initial data.