MIDI

One way to analyze MIDI note information is to use the modulo operator to determine a note’s pitch class (C, C#, D, etc., regardless of what octave it occurs in).

Every MIDI note-on message must be turned off at some time by a subsequent corresponding note-off message for the same pitch (or note-on message with velocity 0). This patch shows two ways to ensure that. One is a very simple way that's illustrative but not ideal; the second way is much more versatile and is the preferred way.

This example plays a 12-note chromatic scale over three octaves with timed triggers. 

This patch demonstrates implementation of the midiparse object to separate and view incoming MIDI data from a single midiin object.

This patch demonstrates using the midiparse object to separate individual MIDI message parameters from a single midiin object.

In this example, one octave of chromatic scale is played from the middle C. 

This is a bare-bones monophonic MIDI synthesizer that uses the pitch and velocity information from incoming MIDI note messages to control the frequency and amplitude of a sawtooth waveform. 

This patch uses the MIDI key number (pitch) data byte to set the frequency of a sawtooth oscillator, and it uses the velocity data byte to set the amplitude of the oscillator. Note-on velocity values in the range 1-127 are mapped to a range of decibels from -60 to 0, and those decibel values are then converted to linear amplitude values to scale the amplitude of the oscillator.

Max has dedicated objects for parsing each particular type of MIDI channel message coming into the computer, such as notes, pitchbends, controllers, etc., and it has corresponding output objects for formatting and transmitting MIDI messages to be sent out of Max.

This patch shows how to create a linear crescendo using MIDI velocity.