This page is only visible to admin users. Sorry!

This page is only visible to signed in users.

Contact <link>support@cycling74.com</link> if you believe you're seeing this page in error.

You don't have permission to view this page.

Activity

Billing History for { name }

Licenses

There was a problem removing the addon. Please try again.

Are you sure you would like to remove the <name>{addonName}</name> addon from your Max subscription? Your {addonName} addon license will remain active until the end of your current billing cycle.

{name} was successfully removed from your Max subscription.

Remove Addon

There was a problem resuming your subscription. Please try again.

Are you sure you would like to resume <name>{addonName}</name>? Your billing cycle will be reactivated and you will be billed as normal on {renewalDate}.

Your subscription has been successfully resumed.

Resume Subscription

There was a problem cancelling your subscription.

Are you sure you would like to cancel <name>{licenseName}</name>? Your license will remain active until <expiry>{expiryDate}</expiry>, at which point your subscription will expire and the license will be deactivated.

Your subscription has been successfully canceled.

Cancel Subscription

Next, start up the Max application and sign into your account (Help > User Account and Licenses).

Max has been successfully activated.

You must be signed into your account to activate Max.

Activate Max

Create a New Post

Edit Article

The list of what we're discovering about Max and our users grows each day. We tackle everything from hardware reviews to re-reading books from decades past.

Get the Latest on Max and our Community

Articles

Sign Out

Sign in to authorize License

Authorize Max

Filter by Format

Filter by Language

Find books related to learning Max.

Books About Max

Here are the artists and educators helping people get creative in Max

Meet Our Max Certified Trainers

Certified Trainers

{ firstName } { lastName } - Certified Trainer

There are no open positions at this time.

This website uses cookies.

Please check your inbox for further instructions.

Forgot Password

Error

Success

Actions

Create Forum Topic

Edit Forum Topic

{category} Forum

There was an error submitting your details. Please try again.

Thank you for your submission! Someone will be in touch with you soon.

NFR / Industry Accomodations

Please make sure you use the link you received by email.

There was a problem retrieving your invitation.

Your account has been successfully created. To manage your institutional licenses, please go to <authLink>https://auth.cycling74.com</authLink> and sign in with your newly created account.

You must be signed out to view this page.

Create an Account

Find more details on our <link>Status Page</link>.

Under Maintenance

We are currently carrying out a scheduled maintenance of our website. Some functionality is temporarily unavailable. We appreciate your patience.

Name

Sort By

{ category } Packages

Share a Max Project

Edit Project

Image Notes

Important Notes

Max Projects come in all shapes and forms. Over the years, our users have shared over a thousand ideas and projects with us. We're proud to showcase them here.

Find Inspiration from other Max Users

Cycling '74 will review it within a week and may make minor edits before publishing it, so your project looks best and reads well in our project gallery.

Thank you for your submission! Your project is currently pending.

Account Recovery

Bundled

{ name } { version } Release Notes

There was a problem changing your password. Please try again.

You can now <link>log in</link> with your updated credentials.

Your password was changed successfully.

Reset Password

Your purchase has now been linked to this account. Next, start up the Max application and sign into your account (Help > User Account and Licenses).

Retrieve License

Type

Search the Cycling '74 forums and website

Search {query}

Please enter your educational details

Your Max for Live or Live Suite serial number is required for this purchase. <link>Need help finding your serial number?</link>

There was a problem updating your subscription. Please try again, or contact support@cycling74.com if the problem persists.

Confirm Subscription Addon

Thank you for your purchase

Thank you

Retrieving your order details, please wait...

Contact <link>support@cycling74.com</link> if you have questions/issues.

Couldn't sign in. Please check that your username/email and password are correct.

Sign in with your Cycling '74 account

There was a problem creating an account. Please try again.

Successfully created your user account! Please check your email for one last verification step.

Create a Cycling '74 account

Select a Product

Thank you! Your request has been successfully submitted to our support team. Please check your email.

There was an error sending your application. Please try again.

There was an error sending your request. Please try again.

By submitting this iLok request, you understand that you will be notified when an asset is deposited to your iLok.com account. After receiving that notification, you can transfer the asset to your iLok USB stick. Please be aware that all iLok requests are manually processed so it can take up to 48 hours to fulfill your request during normal business hours (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Pacific Time).

Important Information

Thank you! Your request has been successfully submitted.

Please note that we are no longer taking submissions for Tools and no longer supporting the Tools section, so you may run into broken files and URLs. You can contribute to the Cycling '74 Community by submitting a Package or using the forums instead.

Max Tools Archive

Edit Tutorial

Tutorials are an ideal way to accomplish a task, learn a new strategy or brush up on your skills. In addition to our in-app Examples, Tutorials and Help Files, you can find new ones here.

Explore the Online Tutorials

Tutorials

Thank you. Please start Max and sign in to use your license

Upgrade

Sign In

Your account requires verification. Please check your inbox, or <link>click here to send the verification email again</link> if you didn't receive it.

Unverified Account

Do you have an activation code?

Already own Max 8 and ready to authorize?

Trouble? Please email <link>support@cycling74.com</link> for help.

If you're new to Max, this is just for you.

Thanks for verifying your account!

You're one step closer to being part of the Cycling '74 Community.

Verify Your Cycling '74 Account

Failed to request a new verification e-mail: {message}

A verification email has been sent to { email }. Please check your inbox.

Can't find your verification e-mail or only have an expired one?

There was a problem verifying your email change. Please try again.

There was an error verifying your email address.

Your email address has been successfully verified. Thank you!

Verify Your Email Address

A user token is required to verify your email address. Please follow the link you received via email.

Darwin Grosse

It all started one day during a conversation with a friend. We were talking about something, and I realized I had the perfect photo to enhance the discussion. I also realized that it was in My Great Big Archive, and that I would never be able to find it.

This was pretty depressing, but it also got me thinking: I have a huge (16 TB) backup disk that contains almost all of my life since about 2005. How many photos were on that drive? And would I ever see any of those images again?

scarydrive.jpg

I decided to change things: I may not be able to categorize/tag/sort all of the photos that were collected over the years, but I certainly could make sure that I had the chance to see them! I decided to make a Max-based photo viewer that would be robust enough to traverse 

 hard drive – including my 16 TB monster.

In order to pull it off, I needed some industrial-strength help. So I turned to the 

 objects. I remembered that there was an example in the Extras patch that offered file system access; I figured that would be the right place to plumb for the tools to get the job done.

PixFinder.zip

Working one's way through a file system is a classic example of recursive programming: you have a function that gets a directory listing, and if any of the items are subdirectories, you call that same function with the subdirectory. It’s an elegant way to walk through a file system, but in practice it can also be tricky.

In trying to traverse a large file system, I started with the Node for Max Extras “fs” example as the starting point.

n4m-fsexample.jpg

My first modification was to find images and return their file paths whenever they were found. This example asynchronously does file system recursion, and it pointed out a problem with asynchronous behavior: it created enormous number of simultaneous folder requests, then started generating an equally enormous number of Max messages with found images. Immediately Max got overwhelmed, with messages getting ignored, and eventually crashing Node.

I knew that the Node fs module had synchronous versions of all the calls, and that would provide a single thread of execution – so that I would only have to manage a one file discovery at a time. So I changed the 

 calls to synchronous versions (for example, using 

), hoping that this would provide for better processing. It kind of worked, but the synchronous functions are quite ‘greedy’, and really kill the system while they are running.

I found that Max – and the computer itself – got very unresponsive when using the synchronous functions, and so I had to abandon that approach, as well

The third attempt used something in between pure asynchronous and pure synchronous code: JavaScript’s async functions and the await keyword functionality. You can find out more about this on Mozilla:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/Asynchronous/Async_await

Using this system, you can create asynchronous functions, but pause the program’s execution until they return from processing.

// findFiles: kick off a volume traversal
async function findFiles(vol) {
    var v = vol;
    if (isMac) v = '/Volumes/' + v; // Mac formatting

    await maxAPI.outlet("info", "volume " + v);
    await findRecursiveHelper(v);
};

.
.
.

await findFiles(vol);

This is the best of both worlds, because I can control the order of execution while I’m still allowing for asynchronous processing – which keeps everything responsive. I now had a Node for Max script that could run through an entire hard drive without crashing or choking Max.

But just spewing out image file names wasn’t going to be sufficient – I would also have to be able to wait while my Max patch did something with them. This is a little tricky in a Node for Max script, because I don’t want to make assumptions about how long it will take for Max to process the file information. So I created a waitForBang() function that would do what it says: pause the script execution until it received a bang message.

This function does two things: it returns a JavaScript promise that will need to be resolved, and it stores a function for resolving the promise in the variable named 

 To pause the script execution, just call the 

 function via await and the script will patiently wait.

Now, when a bang message is received, if 

 is non-null, it will resolve the open promise and allow execution to proceed.

// handlers: set up the message handlers (from Max)
const handlers = {
.
.
.
    bang: function () {
        if (promResponder) {
            (promResponder)();
        };
    }
};

Again, all of this is provided by that await functionality.

With so much of the heavy lifting being done by the Node for Max script, the Max patch itself is relatively simple. It includes all of the tooling required for N4M processing (the 

 objects, as well as messages to start and stop the script), the patching required to take the file path information produced by the 

. I also send the path of the image to a 

box so that I can see that information when a particularly interesting photo appears. 

(Note: Make sure to change the file path in the 'run' 

 to point to the location you would like to begin your search!)

pixPatch.jpg

What is interesting is the way that we send the 

 message back to the script to continue processing after an image is found: The right outlet of the 

 object is normally used to dump information about the enclosed data, but it also outputs a message whenever an 

 request is processed. By producing a bang whenever this message is received, we know that the image has been processed. However, if we would immediately send the 

, it would proceed without waiting – and we would not get much of a chance to see it.

 the bang a little - 500 ms by default, but you can change it to change the length of time that the image is displayed. We then send the bang message to the script, and processing will proceed.

The question remains: did it help me find the image I’d recalled? Not really – there were simply too many photos to review individually. But once this program started running, I got a chance to see photos I thought I’d never see again, and even some that I didn’t even remember taking. I also got to see a lot of silly photos that were stuck in NPM packages, website archives and other obscure corners of my hard drive. The patch ran for days, and every time I poked my head in the room to check its progress, I would get mesmerized by the stream of images I would have never otherwise encountered.

Of course, the idea of traversing through massive data stores opens up other interesting ideas. What if you searched for all of the movie files on your system, and displayed them end-to-end? Or found all the random audio files scattered on your hard drive and had a ‘auto-DJ’ create an abstract mix? The ideas are endless – so have a blast!

I decided to change things: I may not be able to categorize/tag/sort all of the photos that were collected over the years, but I certainly could make sure that I had the chance to see them! I decided to make a Max-based photo viewer that would be robust enough to traverse any hard drive – including my 16 TB monster.

In order to pull it off, I needed some industrial-strength help. So I turned to the Node for Max objects. I remembered that there was an example in the Extras patch that offered file system access; I figured that would be the right place to plumb for the tools to get the job done.

My first modification was to find images and return their file paths whenever they were found. This example asynchronously does file system recursion, and it pointed out a problem with asynchronous behavior: it created enormous number of simultaneous folder requests, then started generating an equally enormous number of Max messages with found images. Immediately Max got overwhelmed, with messages getting ignored, and eventually crashing Node. 

I knew that the Node fs module had synchronous versions of all the calls, and that would provide a single thread of execution – so that I would only have to manage a one file discovery at a time. So I changed the fs calls to synchronous versions (for example, using readdirSync() instead of readdir), hoping that this would provide for better processing. It kind of worked, but the synchronous functions are quite ‘greedy’, and really kill the system while they are running. 

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/JavaScript/Asynchronous/Async_await 

Using this system, you can create asynchronous functions, but pause the program’s execution until they return from processing. 

// findFiles: kick off a volume traversal
async function findFiles(vol) {
	var v = vol;
	if (isMac) v = '/Volumes/' + v; // Mac formatting

	await maxAPI.outlet("info", "volume " + v);
	await findRecursiveHelper(v);
};

.
.
.

await findFiles(vol);

This function does two things: it returns a JavaScript promise that will need to be resolved, and it stores a function for resolving the promise in the variable named promResponder. To pause the script execution, just call the waitForBang() function via await and the script will patiently wait.

Now, when a bang message is received, if promResponder is non-null, it will resolve the open promise and allow execution to proceed. 

// handlers: set up the message handlers (from Max)
const handlers = {
.
.
.
	bang: function () {
		if (promResponder) {
			(promResponder)();
		};
	}
};

With so much of the heavy lifting being done by the Node for Max script, the Max patch itself is relatively simple. It includes all of the tooling required for N4M processing (the node.script and node.debug objects, as well as messages to start and stop the script), the patching required to take the file path information produced by the node.script object, and display it in a jit.pwindow. I also send the path of the image to a message box so that I can see that information when a particularly interesting photo appears. (Note: Make sure to change the file path in the 'run' messagebox to point to the location you would like to begin your search!)

What is interesting is the way that we send the bang message back to the script to continue processing after an image is found: The right outlet of the jit.matrix object is normally used to dump information about the enclosed data, but it also outputs a message whenever an importmovie request is processed. By producing a bang whenever this message is received, we know that the image has been processed. However, if we would immediately send the bang, it would proceed without waiting – and we would not get much of a chance to see it.

So we delay the bang a little - 500 ms by default, but you can change it to change the length of time that the image is displayed. We then send the bang message to the script, and processing will proceed.

image3.jpg

One day during a conversation with a friend, I realized I had the perfect photo to enhance the discussion. I also realized that it was in My Great Big Archive (16 TB) backup disk that contains almost all of my life since about 2005. How many photos were on that drive? Would I ever see any of those images again? I decided to make a Max-based photo viewer that would be robust enough to traverse my monster drive.

file-system-traversal-for-fun

Whoa. There's the window with the view of Pike's Peak!

Thanks for sharing! https://totalairecare.ca/terms-conditions/

File System Traversal - For Fun!

Gregory Taylor

Welcome back to the second portion of our patch on the mysteries and wonders of the Spirograph. This time out, we are going to augment our Spirograph patch by using the Jitter 

 object will let us make use of the drawing modes that the object supports to create even more interesting output from the Jitter matrix of values the Javascript code creates.

SPIROGRAPHICS_PART2.zip

Let's start by making a comparison between the Spirograph patch Darwin created last time and the

 version of the patch. Here is the original from 

Explore the Online Tutorials

File System Traversal - For Fun!

Rainy/Snowy Day Max, Part II: Meshes and 3D Spirographics

Rainy/Snowy Day Max: Spirographics

Swappable Max Logic Using bpatchers

Max 8 Guitar Processor, Part 6

Max 8 Guitar Processor, Part 5

An MC Journey, Part 4

Max 8 Guitar Processor, Part 4

Max 8 Guitar Processor, Part 3

Max 8 Guitar Processor, Part 2