Auzzie is an add-on package for Max that makes it easier to generate and process audio than it would be using native Max objects. It contains some polyphonic synthesizers and effects processors that would take a significant amount of work to implement directly in Max. Auzzie is no substitute for patching with native Max objects, but it’s helpful for people who are new to Max — and even some who aren’t. You can control Auzzie modules using Max messages, and you can connect these modules to native Max audio objects for more flexibility.
Auzzie owes its existence to Vizzie, the package of video modules that comes with Max. The experience of seeing students make non-trivial patches in Vizzie after a quick introduction led me to want such a thing for audio. BEAP is an excellent, comprehensive package, but its orientation toward analog modular synthesis — monophonic synthesizers, a non-standard (for Max) signal range — made it harder for my students to work with. They just needed something simple to make sound while honing their Max messaging skills.
The preferred method of installation is via the File > Show Package Manager menu command in Max. When updates are available, you can install them from the same place.
Otherwise, take these steps.
On Windows, note that you may have an “Auzzie” folder inside of another “Auzzie” folder. We want the former (the inside folder), not the latter, when dragging the folder in step 4.
macOS:
~/Documents/Max 8/Packages/
Windows:
~\Documents\Max 8\Packages\
NOTE: You will see the Packages folder only if you have already launched Max at least once.
If you are on macOS and receive errors after launching Max (visible in the Windows > Max Console window), you need to counteract a Mac security measure. The solution is normally to run this command in Terminal:
xattr -cr
being sure to leave a space before “-cr”. Then drag the “Auzzie” folder, which you just put in your Max Packages folder, into the Terminal. This enters the path to that folder for xattr to work on. Then press the return key to execute this command, which clears the quarantine (and other) metadata flags from all the Auzzie files.
You can learn Auzzie by starting in Max with the Extras > Auzzie Overview window, and clicking buttons to view the topics listed there. After learning how to insert modules, You will find most of the help files by clicking A Guide to Auzzie Modules. There, you can click on any of the colored category buttons to see a collection of modules, each with an example patch.
While patching, you can alt-click, in Edit (i.e., unlocked) mode, on any Auzzie module in your patch. This will open the example patch for that module.
If you don’t want to install Auzzie yet, you can view the following page, which simply lists the available modules.
The following is a list of known or suspected issues. If you encounter unexpected or unexplained behavior, please contact (the developer), and include as complete a description as you can. It’s helpful to attach a patch that illustrates the problem using as few Auzzie modules and Max objects as possible. Please also invoke the About Max menu command, click “Copy support information to clipboard,” and paste that into the bottom of your email.
NOTE: The rest of this page is only for people who have used Auzzie prior to version 2 and have patches they want to keep.
The version of Auzzie linked above is version 2, which is not compatible with version 1. If you have patches created with version 1, they will not work with version 2. Moreover, you cannot install and use the two versions together.
However, there is a special version of Auzzie 1 that can be installed alongside of Auzzie 2. Then you must convert your old patches (see below).
After you relaunch Max, you should rebuild the database that holds file information for Max. To do this, put the following text in a message (not object) box:
; max db.reset
(You need the semicolon and space following it.)
Lock the patch, and click that message box to initiate the database rebuild. You will see the File Browser icon in the left window margin overlaid with a small blue progress indicator. The database rebuild can take 5-10 minutes, depending on your computer. If you skip this step, you probably will see weird behavior like Max putting up an open-file dialog when you first launch Max after these changes.
To make your old patches work with the auzzie1 package, you must run them through a converter application. All this does is substitute “az1.” for “az.” within the .maxpat files.
NOTE: This converter works only on macOS. See below for the bash script it uses, if your Windows computer is able to run bash scripts from the command line.
First, double-click this Converter app, and confirm any alerts it presents you with. It will need certain permissions to operate. All it does is run a bash script with your user privileges. If this makes you nervous, see below for reassurance.
Then quit the Terminal and Converter apps, if they’re still running.
Drag and drop COPIES OF your old .maxpat files that use Auzzie v1 onto this app. It will create new versions of the files with “-converted” in the name. You can drag and drop more than one file at a time.
If you use Windows and have the ability to run bash scripts, you can try to use the following script. It is nearly the same as the one used by the macOS converter app linked above. Mac users who are comfortable with the command line might prefer to use this script directly, instead of using the converter app.
Run the script like this:
bash convert-auzzie1-patches.sh file1.maxpat file2.maxpat [...] fileN.maxpat
If you are nervous about running this file converter program, here are two things you can do to feel better about it.
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/ConvertAuzziePatch.app.zip
You should see exactly this long string of hex alphanumeric digits:
59682bf4cc1e2b72fb7229c3632567753be2a0a6203c4074bc22155a7f4225a2
Obviously, this will not work if your browser automatically unzips all files you download.
ConvertAuzziePatch.app/Contents/bin/drop.sh