iterative

In order for this example to work correctly, you first need to download the patch called henon.maxpat and place it in the Max file search path.

The "Hénon attractor" (or "Hénon map") is an iterative function that produces a particular chaotic pattern of behavior, which can be visualized or sonified. An iterative function is a formula that uses its own output as an input variable in its own subsequent calculation. In the case of the Hénon map, the function outputs two values, x and y, which can be considered as the coordinates of a point in two-dimensional Cartesian space.

Relevant to the musical applications of cellular automata, this is a patch that controls a bank of 128 oscillators based on the on-off state of a row of cells in a Jitter matrix that is generated by some very simple rules of a cellular automaton.