When a sound is mixed with a delayed version of itself, each sinusoidal component of the delayed sound has a unique phase offset compared to the original, so each frequency is accentuated or attenuated differently. For example, if a 1000 Hz sinusoid is delayed by 1/1000 of a second (1 millisecond), the original and the delayed version will still be perfectly in phase, so that frequency will be increased in amplitude when the two versions are added together.
Managing the flow of data in a program is a common issue. Often you'll want to receive data from different sources, or send it to different destinations.
One of the earliest methods of digital sound synthesis was a digital version of the electronic oscillator, which was the most common sound generator in analog synthesizers. The method used was simply to read repeatedly, at the established sample rate, through a stored array of samples that represent one cycle of the desired sound wave. By changing the step size with which one increments through the stored wavetable, one can alter the number of cycles one completes per second, which will determine the perceived fundamental frequency of the resulting tone.
A computer can make a choice between different alternatives based on assigned statistical “likelihoods”—relative probabilities assigned to each possible alternative.
This patch implements tap tempo using a "simple moving average" (SMA) calculation of time between taps. The patch alters the transport tempo based on the rate at which you tap the 't' key. The method takes the average of the most recent three time intervals between the most recent four taps. So, once you tap four times, it will set the transport tempo to your tempo, and if you keep tapping it responds to your changes but takes a couple beats to move gradually to your new tempo.
Instead of the user entering a tempo value by hand, it’s possible to have the computer measure the tempo at which the user is tapping the beat. Do do that, you simply need to measure the time difference between two events (taps).
When you’re trying to synchronize musical events to a timeline, it’s sometimes useful to have a metronome that tells you where the computer thinks the beat is. The metronome makes a percussive sound on each beat, and ideally makes a unique sound on the first beat of each measure. Most DAW and MIDI sequencing programs have such a feature.
For this patch to work correctly, you must have the six guitar string samples in the same directory as you save this Max patch.
This example consists of a .zip archive of files. Together they demonstrate the idea of organizing one’s sound files in a specific folder, and then using the full path to that folder to ensure finding the sound files when you want to play them.
Synthesizing a sinusoid in MSP is a fairly trivial matter, because the cycle~ object does most of the work for you. It produces a full-amplitude waveform at the requested frequency ƒ and with the requested phase offset φ.