build your own plugins
MIDI sequencer
One great feature of Live is its extensive range of MIDI effects, and M4L enhances this by allowing us to build our own MIDI effects and processors. What we’re going to do next, then, is build a MIDI step sequencer to complement the drum voice synthesiser we’ve just built. To do this we need to create various elements: a timing clock, a display and programming grid, and a method for converting those sequences into a stream of MIDI messages. We’ll be using a few new objects and techniques here, so be sure to make full use of Max’s builtin documentation if you need to better understand any of the objects we use: just rightclick on an object to access help and reference information, or simply select an option and click the Reference button to view an object’s details in the sidebar.
> Step by step 2. Creating a Max MIDI sequencer
1 >
In Live, drag the Max MIDI Effect device onto a MIDI track. Also add the drum synth you made in the last tutorial, and set it up with some sounds. Open the MIDI effect in Max, and in the Inspector enable the project’s Open in Presentation option. Get rid of the default comment objects, and save your patcher as CM_StepSequencer.
2 >To keep our step sequencer in sync with Live, the first thing we need to know is Live’s current playback point. Press [N] (a shortcut for creating new objects) and type “transport @ clocksource live”. The “@clocksource live” is an attribute name and value pair –a named argument – that tells the transport object to lock to Live’s transport.