The Trononator

The Trononator is a set of copy-and-paste-able interface modules for Max/MSP meant to work together to create audio applications with live performance in mind. It is also meant to be suitable as an introduction to developing audio applications with Max/MSP. It demonstrates important programming concepts like modularity, simplicity, and organization, and showcases usage of some of the most commonly used Max/MSP objects.

What Kind of Music Can You Make With the Trononator?

That’s up to you. But to get your creative juices flowing here is a song that PJ composed with the Trononator to give you an idea.

Why Trononator?

Johanna thought the name should have the word tron somewhere, whereas PJ felt that ator was also an unquestionable necessity. After thinking for no more than 2 seconds, Johanna came up with Trononator, and hilarity ensued.

Using the Trononator

The Trononator can be used in two ways: as a stand-alone runtime demo within the Max Runtime environment, or as fully-editable collection of modules within Max itself. We’ve also put together a pack of audio samples called Pasta for Dinner that you can use with the Trononator to make music out of the sounds of food.

Installing the Trononator Max Runtime Demo

Who Should Use This?
The Trononator Max Runtime Demo is meant for people who have never tried (and don’t yet own) Max/MSP but would like to see what sorts of audio applications it can be used to build. Its a great, free, way to start making your own electronic or sample-based music.

1. Download and install the Max Runtime environment for Mac OS X or Windows.
2. Download the Trononator Max Runtime Demo
3. Double-click the Trononator Max Runtime Demo to open or launch the Max Runtime and open the Demo file.
4. Start making some music!

Using the Trononator Max Module Collection

Who Should Use This?
The Trononator Max Module Collection is meant for beginner and advanced Max/MSP users. If you are just starting to learn Max/MSP the module collection provides a great introduction to many basic concepts and will get you up and running right away. If you are a seasoned Max/MSP pro, the Trononator modules will save you plenty of time when building more complex patches.

1. Make sure you have downloaded and installed Max.
2. Download the Trononator Max Module Collection.
3. Unzip the module collection.
4. Add the folder containing the modules to your Max/MSP load path. (Open the Options menu, click on File Preferences..., in the window that opens click the + button in the bottom left corner of the screen, click the Choose... button on the newly created line, and select the folder containing the modules.)
5. Load index.maxpat and start using the copy-and-paste-able collection of modules!

Additionally, if you’d like to play with the Trononator Demo:
6. Download the Trononator Demo Max Patch
7. Load demo.maxpat and behold the magical example which demonstrates how to use all of the modules!

Contributing to the Trononator Max Module Collection

We released this module collection to give something back to the community and spark a conversation. Because we care a lot about collaboration we also set up a github repository for the Trononator. We use github to share code, but it’s also a great way to share Max patches. If you’ve never used github before check out their help section, and if you have, please fork and contribute!

Using the Pasta for Dinner Sample Pack

Why Do I Want This?
The Pasta for Dinner sample pack is a great way to start exploring how you can turn everyday sounds into music. We live in Italy so we know how amazing good cooking sounds, and we thought it would be great to explore the musical side of the kitchen. You don’t need these samples to use the Trononator, but they definitely make it a lot more fun.

You can download the Pasta for Dinner sample pack as a zip file or grab individual samples from Soundcloud. The Pasta for Dinner sample pack by frestyl is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Remix and share-away – we want to hear what you can do with these sounds!

How the Trononator Modules Work

Time

The time module counts 32 steps repeatedly while the global transport is activated. By default, the counter increments with every quarter note. The labelled bangs set which subdivision to use. The I/O button starts and stops the global transport, which will also start/stop all other instances of this module. Two counts are emitted which correspond to the two number boxes. The leftmost is the current value of the 32 step counter, and the second is the actual beat value of the transport. The sync bang resets the global transport and the 32 step counter.

Programming Notes
Uses the global transport to control the metronome rate that constantly increments a 32 step counter. Emits both the value of the 32 step counter, and the “real count” – the current beat of the global transport. When the transport is turned off, a final bang is emitted to dump the transport state. This state is then sent to all receivers of transport_ctrl, which is the toggle button in every instance of this module. This causes the toggle control of all other instances to be toggled when any individual control is toggled.

Sequencer

The sequencer module takes as input a step number between 1 and 32 and outputs that step number if it is on. The current step is highlighted for visual reference. The all toggle can be used to turn on/off all toggles simultaneously. The steps number box changes the number of steps over which to cycle.

Programming Notes
Takes as input a step number between 1 and 32, and outputs that step number if the toggle corresponding to that step is on. Continually cycles between 1 and the chosen number of steps. In such a way, an odd number of steps can be achieved for interesting timing effects. The all toggle sets all toggles to its state. Each toggle can be controlled externally. Particularly, the random pattern module can be connected directly to this module to produce a random pattern of on and off toggles. If the number of steps changes while receiving steps, the count will automatically reset itself to the current step number being received. There is a section of the patch responsible for syncing with the current step. It works by constantly storing the current step + 1 modulo the number of steps to cycle over. When the number of cycle steps changes, this stored value is sent to the counter, which resets to this value the next time it is instructed to increment. For example, assume we are cycling over 16 steps, but we want to change the number of cycle steps to 8. The current step is 9, so 10 is stored in the integer object, since (9 + 1) % 16 == 10. Now we change the number of steps to 8. This sets the right hand side of the modolo operation, and triggers the operation on the currently stored value (which is 10). The result is 2 (10 % 8 == 2), which is sent to the integer object. Then, the step change sends a bang to the integer object which sends 2 out to the counter object. But the counter does not change until it receives the next bang. The current step is still 9, so when 10 is received, the counter resets to 2, which is correct, since in a cycle of 8, 10 is the second step: 9 10 11 12 etc…

Random Pattern

The random pattern module emits a random amount and sequence of bangs. It is primarily designed to work with the sequencer module to produce a random sequencer pattern, but could be used for other purposes as well.

Programming Notes
First sends 0 to all 32 outlets (thereby clearing any toggle elements this module is connected to), then x number of bangs to random outlets between 1 and the number of chosen steps. The basic concept is to output a bang to the outlet index that corresponds to the number generated by the random object.

Step

The step module offers an alternative time-based triggering mechanism to a traditional sequencer. Instead of choosing the specific steps on which a trigger should occur, you choose the step number on which it should occur, or that a trigger should occur every x steps. For example, with every mode selected, a bass drum sample could be triggered every four steps.

Programming Notes
Depending on the value of the radio group, a bang is output if the incoming step number is equal to the specified step number, or if the incoming step number is congruent to the specified step number. For example, if step is selected, and the chosen step is 5, a bang is output whenever the incoming step is 5. If every is selected, and the chosen step is 5, a bang is output on 0, 5, 10, 15, etc.

Probability Gate

The probability gate module takes anything as input, and has a chance out of 100 chance of being repeated to the output. Thus, if the chance is set to 100, the input is always allowed to continue through to the output. If the gate is off, nothing is ever repeated to the output. This is equivalent to having chance set to 0.

Programming Notes
When the gate is open, the input acts as a trigger to generate a random number. If this randomly generated number is less than the current chance number, a second gate is opened that allows the original input to continue through to the output. Since every random number is between 0 and 99, a chance of 100 allows everything, and a chance of 0 allows nothing. When the gate is closed, nothing is allowed to pass through to the output.

Sample

The sample module loads an audio file which can then be further manipulated. The rate box controls the playback speed, and the select box controls the selection mode for the loaded audio. select mode allows any range of audio to be selected. loop mode allows moving and resizing of the selected audio segment as a loop, and move allows the selection to be slid and zoomed.

Programming Notes
This patch is a basic wrapper for the waveform~/wave~ object combination, with a few added bells and whistles. It basically works as follows: the selection points are sent to the wave~ object, and the length of the selection is used to set the phasor~ frequency so that playback occurs at the proper speed. When the patch receives input, the phase of the phasor is set to 0, effectively starting the sample from the beginning of the selection. The length of the selection is also sent out from the patch so that this data may be used to control an object like adsr~ or another kind of amplitude envelope. The rate~ object is used to multiply playback speed by the chosen rate value. The phasor frequency is initially set to the correct playback rate for the entire buffer, as initially the entire buffer is selected. Note the use of the #0 argument: max generates a random identifier and replaces #0 in each instance of the patch, so buffers never overlap even if there are multiple instances of this patch.

Tones

The tones module takes a scale index value in the range 0-12 and produces a tone of the specified shape, offset by the specified root and increased by the specified number of octaves. Can be connected to the adsr module to control the envelope and duration of the tone.

Programming Notes
This module is largely meant to be used in conjunction with the scales module. It receives a scale index as input (a value between 0 and 12), and turns it into a midi note in the scale at the specified root. The default is 60, which is midi value for middle C. This is achieved by adding the root number to the received index. In addition, this value will be projected by the specified number of octaves, which is achieved by adding a multiple of 12 to the midi note. The midi note is then converted to a frequency value, and sent to all 5 supported wave shapes. The select box controls which of the shapes is output.

Scales

The scales object can be used to create repeating tone patterns. It has an adjustable number of sliders, which can each take on a value between 0 and 12. In addition, the bars can be randomized. The mode in which bar values are chosen depends on the selected scale type. In this way, all notes values chosen during randomization will fall into positions dictated by the scale type. This module is meant to be used closely with the tones module, but can be adapted for a variety of purposes, for example, controlling the tones chosen by a vocoder module.

Programming Notes
The main control object in this patch is a multislider that can have between 1 and 32 sliders. Each slider is meant to represent an index in a 12-note scale, with 0 being the root note, and 12 being the octave. A chromatic scale is thus all notes between 0 and 12. Using this method, a major scale becomes the following sequence of scale indices: 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12. All of the currently supported scales are represented in the scales subpatch, and each is generated by mapping the notes of the chromatic scale onto the desired target scale. Hence, when the randomize bang happens, each mutlislider takes on only values allowed in the target scale. The index of each slider along with its value are stored in a funbuff so they may be recalled by their indices later. The incoming step number acts as an index into this funbuff, and chooses the slider value at that index to send to the output. Every time the multislider is adjusted, the funbuff is completely cleared and repopulated.

ADSR

The adsr module controls an amplitude envelope for incoming audio with the classic attack, decay, sustain, release parameters. The length value controls how much time elapses between when the envelope is triggered and when it enters the release phase of the envelope. Takes as input an audio signal to be enveloped, and a bang to actually trigger the envelope. While the sliders can be used to adjust values, they can also be entered manually.

Programming Notes
This is a basic interface for the adsr~ object. adsr~ is activated whenever outside input is received, and is sent a 0 after length milliseconds. When adsr~ receives a 0, it enters the release phase, which ramps the envelope down to 0 over release milliseconds.

Filter

The filter module is an interface for the classic filter~/biquad~ combination. The dropdown box can select the filter algorithm, and the number boxes can modify the parameters. The filter is active when the toggle control is on, otherwise it is bypassed. The clear button resets the filter if the parameters accidentally cause it to melt.

Programming Notes
This module is a basic interface to the filtergraph~/biquad~ object pair. The filtered audio is sent to the output if the toggle is on, otherwise the audio passes through unfiltered. When the filter graph is modified with the mouse, the parameters are sent back into the number boxes, but with the set message prepended so as not to repeat the numbers back into the graph. This would cause an infinite loop, and Max would die. All parameters can be modified externally, except the filter algorithm, which is chosen with the select box.

Delay

The delay module is an interface for the classic tapin~/tapout~ object combination, with a feedback line built in. The delay control sets the delay length in milliseconds, and the feedback control sets the percentage of feedback as a value between 0 and 1. The delay is active when the toggle control is on, otherwise it is bypassed.

Programming Notes
This is a basic interface for the tapin~/tapout~ object pair, with a feedback loop built-in. The un-delayed audio always passes through to the output, but if the toggle is on, so does the delayed output. After leaving the tapout~ object, the delayed audio is sent both to the output and to a signal multiplier. The reduced audio is sent back into the tapin~ object such that the delay is re-applied to the already delayed audio. If the signal multiplier is zero, no feedback occurs. This signal multiplier is restricted to hold values between zero and .99. Any values higher than 1 would cause infinite gain on the audio and eventually shut down dsp.

Mute

The mute module causes any incoming signal to be cleanly zeroed when the toggle control is on, otherwise the signal simply passes through unmodified.

Programming Notes
This is a simple trick to allow mute~ to work with any dsp chain. The pass~ object is inside the tomute subpatch, which is either muted or not depending on the state of the toggle. on means the incoming audio is muted, and off means it passes through untouched.

Record

The record module captures two channels of input to a file specified by clicking the open button. It also sends the input directly to the output so that this module may be chained like the others. If no file is chosen prior to recording, nothing is captured. Recording is active while the toggle is on.

Programming Notes
Uses sfrecord~ to capture two channels of audio, generally the left and right stereo channels. Toggling the sfrecord~ object also allows the channel audio to pass through to the scope~ objects. This provides a visual cue that recording is currently in progress. A timer is also updated. The original input is also repeated to the output for ease in chaining the module.

Pan

The pan module is an interface for an equal distance crossfading algorithm. The mono audio input is split into two channels, the relative strength of which are controlled by the position of the dial. The pan value can also be modified externally. A pan value of 0 is hard-left, 127 is hard-right, and 64 is centered.

Programming Notes
Almost this entire patch is borrowed from the Equal Distance Crossfade section of MSP Tutorial 22. The only addition is the dial control.