[maxmsp] Re: Another hopeless math question (I dont know what im asking about....)

Well, the top part is for simple scaling of a main value. Good for making harmonic frequencies (integer or float) of a main frequency value. Build up your synthesizer with banks of these, store the multipliers as presets (pattrs even better). You could use a multislider for the values, and another one for the volume levels. Good fundamental synth stuff that allows control over a main freq value (which could be entered via a MIDI notein).

For the graph part, it's really just to show that generating curves is straightforward. The presets disappeared when I pasted the patch (I guess this happens all the time? I didn't know that, too bad). Essentially it takes values 0 - 127 from an uzi and calculates the sine of each, after it goes through a scalar (to make the values more appropriate for sine). It's then scaled again (to change the height of the curve) and has an offset (to move the curve up and down). Try a range of scalars; an offset of 64 will put the curve in the middle of the graph.

What does it "do"?  ;)  Often a good question in Max, since these things can "do" whatever you want. I have it playable as MIDI notes, just as an example. So the first scalar determines how often the sine goes up and down, the second scalar stretches or compresses the curve, and the offset moves it up and down (transposition of notes).

Really it's just for experimentation and to show how to generate curves automatically. This way there's a certain level of control while generating values that aren't totally known, a kind of quasi-randomness that's fun to mess with. Again, once you see some of the possible curves, use a pattr on the parameters and you'll have tons of automatically-generated curves to access. The values can do anything you want, not just be MIDI pitches as I've got here... amp, FX, durations, mixing levels, brightness levels of a video, etc... it's up to you.

The key is the expr... with a more complex function there, or stringing several together, you can get pretty nutty with the curves you make. Also, I'm a big math dork  ;-) so I'm pretty happy just seeing the results graphically. It's way cooler rendering the values in GL, but that takes a bit more work. 

--CJ