timepoint

This patch shows a simple use of a transport-governed metronome to trigger events at a constant rate. The metro object that has the argument '4n' will be governed by the transport because its interval is specified in a tempo-relative, music-based "note values" format. (Just for the sake of comparison, the patch includes another metro that is unaffected by the transport because its interval is specified in milliseconds.) The transport-governed metro will only run when the transport is on.

This patch demonstrates several capabilities, features, and techniques of the transport object for managing tempo-relative time, the translate object for converting between tempo-relative time and absolute time values, and the timing objects that can use tempo-relative timing such as metro, delay, timepoint, phasor~, and line~.

To schedule timepoints in straight clock time, it’s easy enough to do, and if I want transport to report the current time to me in straight clock time, that’s easy enough to do, too. In the following example, when you start the transport with the toggle, it rewinds to time 0 and schedules a timepoint to occur at time 5.5 seconds. By default the transport’s tempo is 120 bpm, so we would expect that timepoint to happen 11 beats later, i.e., after 5280 ticks, i.e.

This example explores some approaches to recording and playing events in Max.

The mtr object is made for recording messages and playing them back in the same rhythm as they were recorded––see the top-left portion of the patch.

The timepoint object automatically and reliably sends out a bang when the specified point in time is reached. How would you specify a point in time, and also make the notification “conditional”, such that it only occurs if a certain condition is met?

A timepoint is a point in musical time.

Whenever the time interval of a metro object is specified using tempo-relative time units such as note values, the operation of that metro will be governed by the transport.

This patch doesn't do anything musical in its own right, but it shows some features of the transport object for tempo-relative control of timing in Max.