The line~ object is useful for providing a control signal. It interpolates linearly sample-by-sample to a new signal value over a specified period of time, then stays at that new value until it is instructed to change. It expects to receive a transition time in its right inlet (a ramp time), followed by a destination value in its left inlet. Alternatively, you can provide both values as a single two-item list. Its initial default value is 0.
A single sfplay~ object can refer to many different sound files, or even specific portions of sound files, with a unique "cue" number assigned to each sound. Once those sound cues have been preloaded (i.e. taught to the object), you can cause the object to play a cue just by sending the desired cue number in its left inlet.
This example shows one way you might use phasor~ to make the length of an audio sample loop stay precisely synchronized with the beat of the transport.
The MSP phasor~ object is frequently used as a low-frequency control signal for audio. Because it is often used to control other signals over a specific period of time, phasor~ can use tempo-relative timing, too. The frequency (rate) of a phasor~ is normally specified in Hertz, but you can alternatively give phasor~ a time interval, using tempo-relative time units, and it will use the inverse of that to determine its frequency.
Audio delay is achieved by creating a buffer in which the most recent past sound can be stored. Usually this is called a "ring buffer" or "circular buffer", because when the buffer is filled (with, let's say, the past one second of sound), it loops around and begins refilling itself at the beginning, thus overwriting the sound that was stored more than one second ago.
This example shows the patch from “Phase distortion synthesis in a poly~ subpatch” being used as a subpatch inside the poly~ object. You will need to download the patch from that example and save it with the name "kinkpoly~" in order for this example to work.
This example shows the patch from “A subpatch suitable for use in poly~” being used as a subpatch inside the poly~ object. You will need to download the patch from that example and save it with the name "FMsynth~" in order for this example to work.
If you want to change the coefficients of biquad~ in real time while a sound is playing, it's usually better to use MSP signals rather than individual Max messages, to avoid causing clicks. In that case, you should replace filtergraph~ with filtercoeff~ and send the frequency, gain, and Q parameters into filtercoeff~ as smooth signals (as shown in the left portion of the example).