MAX 8.6 out (some nice stuff ready for Live 12)

[SLiC]

Introducing Max 8.6

We’re happy to announce the release of Max 8.6! This free update to Max 8 includes Max for Live support for Live 12, along with a new sfizz~ object for using sample-based MIDI instruments, a new gamepad object, as well as two new data types - Arrays and Strings. Visit our New In Max page for more info.

Max for Live
MIDI Tools are a new kind of Max for Live device that let you generate a MIDI notes or modify an existing pattern within a Live Midi Clip.Use live.miditool.in and live.miditool.out to communicate MIDI data. Max 8.6 also includes helpful new Max for Live objects like live.map for easier mapping and live.routing for simpler MIDI input/output routing. Finally, the live.modulate~ object provides interactive parameter modulation, similar to live.remote~ but without total parameter takeover.

sfizz~
The new sfizz~ object (including mc.sfizz~ / mcs.sfizz~) lets you load and play sample instruments in .sfz format within a single object. Use it as a drop-in sound engine for your MIDI patches. For the more adventurous, you can also explore creating your own instruments using either the text-based SFZ file format, or programmatically in Max using a dictionary. Learn more…

gamepad
We’ve added simple, cross-platform gamepad integration with the new gamepad object. This makes working with gamepad controllers much easier than using the lower-level and platform-specific hi object, and includes a new interface for visualizing game controller state. With gamepad you can also track multiple devices at once, and you no longer need to rework your patch for different hardware. Learn more…


Strings and Arrays
Max 8.6 introduces 40 new array and 30 string objects. Unlike regular Max lists, arrays can represent complex structures like arrays of arrays, arrays of dictionaries, or other structures. The new array.map and array.reduce objects make functional-style operations easier, without wrestling with uzi and zl.iter.

String objects let you generate and transform text in Max without the 32k character limit and memory usage associated with Max Symbols, as well as supporting common string manipulations like text search and replacement or parsing and combining strings.
Learn more about arrays and strings…

[ghettosynth]

Nice

[xrr12]

great!

[SLiC]

Nice Sfizz~ example

https://youtu.be/gky1pNJD94w?si=zRz1D47w4UvrorSF

[whyterabbyt]

All good, but the gamepad thing has confused me. It seems touted as a new way to do HDI devices, even implying it replaces use of the hi object, and specifically mentioning joysticks, but it turns out that it only supports gamepads, and no other devices. That joystick support is only joysticks that are in a gamepad. For actual joysticks, keypads and whatever, one has to use the legacy hi methods.
Bit of a misdirect and a missed opportunity to streamline/unify there, I feel.

[2:43AM]

Questions:

• Patcher is seemingly broken and/or does NOT work in v8.6.0 whereas it did perfectly in previous version. Is bpatcher replacing patcher? All I know is 'patcher' worked in the previous version of Max4Live, and it allowed an embedded patcher window to open, but in v8.6.0, it does NOT work. Converting the 'patcher' to a 'bpatcher' seems to fix the problem (i.e., the window now opens), but why?
• Why do fixed text sizes now appear larger in 8.6.0? For example, a live.slider's or live.dial's text above the control which once was set to a fixed value of '13' is now seemingly larger in 8.6.0, i.e. a '13' sized text is seemingly more like a '14' or some odd, in-between value that's larger.
• The same text behavior also is affecting Comment text.
• The same text behavior also is affecting text inside live.tabs.
• It also seems that the actual controls such as a live.slider or live.dial are slightly larger in 8.6.0, but this may be due to the size of the text. For example, changing the text size from 13 to 12 will shrink the dial.
• It's almost as if the dimensions of the "presentation rectangle" are somehow being affected/changing in v8.6.0, seemingly getting smaller and thereby affecting/offsetting the text.
• Why is overwrite [quick] saving not working? Every time I attempt to quick save a Max for Live device, it asks to Save As, and throws up the dialog box to rename, save, overwrite the existing file. This is incorrect behavior.

Needless to say, version 8.6.0 is borking up my custom devices pretty terribly, and seemingly for no good reason.

UPDATE: Never did it before, nor had to do it, but I submitted a Bug Report to Cycling 74.

[whyterabbyt]

Questions:

• Patcher is seemingly broken and/or does NOT work in v8.6.0

8.6.1 came out a month ago, fwiw

[DrGonzo]

Where do you guys go to for new M4L devices? MaxForLive.com?

[SLiC]

MaxForLive.com has a lot of good free stuff (and some paid) but a lot of the people who sell stuff have their won sites, some of the bests is https://fors.fm/ and https://isotonikstudios.com/ etc

[2:43AM]

8.6.1 came out a month ago, fwiw

I'll check into that. I just installed Ableton Live 12.0***, and Max 8.6.0 is what came with it, and it has not yet prompted me that an update is available. However, I do see that Max 8.6.1, with some promising bug fixes, is available: https://cycling74.com/releases/max/8.6.1. However, I only use Max for Live (integrated), so do I need to wait until Ableton makes it available, or can I link "outside Max" to Live?

***Live 12.0.1 is out now. Looks like really minor updates, but installing anyway.

[nanostream]

However, I only use Max for Live (integrated), so do I need to wait until Ableton makes it available, or can I link "outside Max" to Live?

No need to wait, just install the latest Max version and tell Live to use it, there’s a setting for that.

[2:43AM]

Just installed and linked Max 8.6.1, and upon first inspections, it has fixed the text/sizing issues. Patcher is still broken, however, and quick-saving is still broken.

[whyterabbyt]

Questions:

• Patcher is seemingly broken and/or does NOT work in v8.6.0 whereas it did perfectly in previous version. Is bpatcher replacing patcher? All I know is 'patcher' worked in the previous version of Max4Live, and it allowed an embedded patcher window to open, but in v8.6.0, it does NOT work. Converting the 'patcher' to a 'bpatcher' seems to fix the problem (i.e., the window now opens), but why?

Im not 100% sure of what you mean by this (ie when, or under what specific circumstances you're expecting this to happen) but if I create an M4L device and in that there's an 'internal' patcher and an 'external' patcher then both of those patcher windows will be opened when I edit the device, if I saved the device while they're open.
If they were not open while the device was saved, they can both be opened 'manually' by double-clicking on the p-object (if Edit mode is off, of course), when Im editing the device.

This is on Windows 10, Live 12.01, internal MAX 8.6.0(*), but it seems to behave exactly the same as in Live 8.5.1 on my Win7 system.

(* it looks like Im getting Live freezing up when I open a device if Im using external MAX 8.6.1)

[*]Why is overwrite [quick] saving not working? Every time I attempt to quick save a Max for Live device, it asks to Save As, and throws up the dialog box to rename, save, overwrite the existing file. This is incorrect behavior.[/list]

By 'quick save', do you mean Save? (ie as per CTRL-S?) Im definitely seeing 'Save' behave like 'Save As', though not actually 100% of the time. Definitely different behaviour from 8.5.1 though.

[2:43AM]

Im not 100% sure of what you mean by this (ie when, or under what specific circumstances you're expecting this to happen) but if I create an M4L device and in that there's an 'internal' patcher and an 'external' patcher then both of those patcher windows will be opened when I edit the device, if I saved the device while they're open.

I'll admit that I am not the greatest "coder" of M4L. All is self-taught, albeit a haphazardly, but it all works in the end.

The patcher that worked in 8.5.5, but does not in 8.6.x, is a method to toggle open/close a separate, patcher window. I attached a screenshot. The last part of the chain, the 'p' patcher does not work in 8.6.x, but if I transform it to Bpatcher [Object menu > Transform > Patcher to Bpatcher], then it does work. I have no idea why this should be the case, but I am not 100% familiar with Bpatcher; I've never used it.

By 'quick save', do you mean Save? (ie as per CTRL-S?) Im definitely seeing 'Save' behave like 'Save As', though not actually 100% of the time. Definitely different behaviour from 8.5.1 though.

Yep, Ctrl+S. Definitely a bug that it's behaving like Save As. Mine is consistent, however, and it's broken/bugged in 8.6.0 and 8.6.1.

[whyterabbyt]

Hmm, Ive tried replicating that, and checked in Live 8.6.1, then Live/M4L 8.6.0 and it seems to be working... again with 'internal' and 'external' patchers.

maxpatcher.JPG