^^ crow: max + m4l devices (currently testing refactor!)

[dan_derks]

crow: max + max for live devices (feb 3 2020)

A bundle of Max patchers and Max for Live devices that know crow-speak.

I’ve closed the old ^^ crow help: max and max for live thread, as much of the discussion in there was related to how messages to/from crow were bottlenecked into Max’s low-priority queue. This has been fixed by @Galapagoose’s massive overhaul of the [crow] object. This also afforded an opportunity to bring scripting in Max closer to scripting with druid + norns by dropping the required tell_crow prefix. Your old patchers will work fine, but this will hopefully clean up the point of entry for folks

Please feel free to use this thread to ask questions!!

Further resources:

• docs: https://monome.org/docs/crow/max-m4l/
• docs, install sections: crow-max install | crow-max-for-live install
• v1.0 livestream: https://youtu.be/dKMO1Vg0heA
• github repo: https://github.com/monome/crow-max-and-m4l

feb 3 2020 (replaces jan 21 2020) (<~~~ click to download)

• FIX ^^outs: remote is a bit more stable now. super thanks to @jlmitch5 for reporting #25 !
• NEW envelope shapes for ^^dual and ^^outs
• FIX max patch no longer relies on low-priority jit.gl.lua @Galapagoose
• FIX streamlined messaging across m4l devices increases stability (^^outs lfo, especially)
• FIX ^^jf_synth now passes midi thru
• FIX device visuals look better on Mac + Windows
• CHANGE max no longer requires tell_crow to send messages to crow @Galapagoose

for the best experience, please modulate ^^outs with MIDI devices only. Live’s built in LFO is actually an audio device, which gets prioritized over data (which powers crow’s m4l devices) and causes crashing. there is a MIDI LFO available here: https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/max-live-essentials/

when in doubt, if the device can be loaded onto an audio track, it’s an audio device.

[atomboyd]

Sweet! Thanks so much @dan_derks. Max continues to vex me though and I may be falling victim to old beta cruft blocking my crow object…

Am I wrong thinking that after dragging the folder into the Library and restarting that I should just have a crow object to ‘instantiate’?

[dan_derks]

ah apologies for the confusion – it won’t show in that menu since the “object” is really just an abstraction. it can be instantiated through the main patcher window though.

please confirm that you’re able to call up [crow] as a new object in the patcher?

[atomboyd]

Rats! I knew I should have snuck Crow to work today

I’ll check tonight, but for what it’s worth, I’m up to date on all things (crow/max/norns) and was happy to watch the prerecorded live feed (without spilling a drop of water) and play with all the M4L fun as a consolation for feeling dumb with Max.

[LazyCircuits]

So a quick question. If I want to control Just Friends using Crow in Plume mode, can I use ii2c? The help document implies not as it says to set Just Friends in sound/transient?

[dan_derks]

for sure! that would be a really nice extension of the m4l devices – ^^jf_synth is explicitly used to enable/control the Just Type Synthesis mode of JF, but it’d be a nice first Max/M4L project to make a standard mode patcher that uses i2c to:

• enable run
• send run voltage messages
• pulse the different channels
• sequence pitch (will shift-transpose from current speed setting)

[LazyCircuits]

My current programming ability stands at roughly 0 so any cool devices might rely on the community

[atomboyd]

@dan_derks okay, I’ve wrapped my head around it a bit more now.

For anyone like me who may not be super Max-y (but so desperately want to be):

• power up your crow in your case/skiff
• connect to computer with USB
• search crow in the Max File Browser
• choose crow.maxhelp patcher
• Assuming that you’ve installed druid, open up a terminal next to max and start druid by typing ‘druid’
• follow the prompt on the max screen asking you connect, speak and tell time

[dan_derks]

glad you got up and running!

for what it’s worth, the file browser steps through crow.maxhelp are primo, but it’s unnecessary to load druid. Max has a built-in console to where these messages are printed

just navigate to Window > Max Console
or
on Mac: SHIFT + CMD + M
on Windows: SHIFT + CTRL + M

and you’ll see that crow will print all the same messages to the console right inside of Max!

further, using Max’s key commands, you can quickly instantiate a new object by hitting the N key on your keyboard while in a patcher – once the object is loaded, just start typing the word crow to see all your options

@atomboyd, I really like using the file browser to get to the crow help patcher, though – while you can right-click on the crow object and choose “Open crow Help”, there’s a chance that the [crow] object in your original patcher and the [crow] object in the help patcher will conflict + messages will get dropped. this is mentioned as a nb. on the help patcher, but thought it’d be good to bring up here too!

[atomboyd]

Brilliant! Thanks again for the help and all your contributions to the community!

I’m waaaaayy overdue to walk through some of the remedial tutorials in Max, even the Node.js integration (dayjob!) didn’t drag me in, but I’m hopeful that this will.

Now that my kid is a wizened old 7 months, I have tons more time for me <-SARCASM

But really, thank you. I’m looking forward to instantiating like crazy.

EDIT: duh, of course it has a console… gotta start sleeping more

[Duksos]

This is great thank you to everyone involved
I appreciate it

[dan_derks]

small fix bump

^^outs: remote is a bit more stable now. super thanks to @jlmitch5 for reporting #25 !

for the best experience, please modulate ^^outs with MIDI devices only. Live’s built in LFO is actually an audio device, which gets prioritized over data (which powers crow’s m4l devices) and causes crashing. there is a MIDI LFO available here: https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/max-live-essentials/

when in doubt, if the device can be loaded onto an audio track, it’s an audio device.

[benjaminz]

howdy, in this patch (and in general), in2 works perfectly while i can’t seem to get in1 to detect a clock in change mode. as far as i understand, i seem to be sending it the exact same mode-setting message, and stream seems to work ok. any clues?

A dead simple 128-step single-channel sequencer [grid/crow]

hi! i often found myself using my OP-Z w/ the CV module for simple single-channel trigger and gate sequences. however, given the limited # of steps, i often had to link patterns together, which made editing a pain. inspired by the grid studies step sequencer (which i used as a starting point), i threw this together. for now, i plan on using it with notes from arc levels to create neat, 128-step sequences.

patch

----------begin_max5_patcher---------- 5148.3oc68j1aiijce18uBFkAn2rvsm5jGAHAYmcy1AH8r…

thanks!

[dan_derks]

hey hey! closing the loop from DM, I’d give crow.reset() and crow.clear() a try in druid or ^^r and ^^c in max, to the [crow] object. let me know how it goes!

[benjaminz]

hey, here’s my rack setup:

after around ~3 loops of my 1-bar clip that contains modulation of outs's remote value, my crow becomes unresponsive. i gotta turn my rack on and off to get things working again, and then the same thing reoccurs. i think i’m running the latest everything, any way i could debug further? thanks!

[dan_derks]

hey hey!

@benjaminz

modulation of outs 's remote value

what is providing modulation? abletons LFO device is technically audio, but ive had solid success with the LFO-MIDI device from M4L Essentials.

lemme know, happy to test, hope all’s well where u are

[benjaminz]

same to you! staying safe w/ plenty of time to mess around.

i was just modulating from within the clip like so:

would another method be more stable?

[dan_derks]

no, that should work. the knob is a dead simple single message out to crow that replaces the voltage value with whatever the knob’s position is, maybe it’s just getting overloaded with the resolution? unless Live is technically sending clip data to M4L as low rate audio? i’ll do some testing this week and poking around Live’s automation handling, sorry for the trouble!

@Galapagoose, is there any good way to monitor a crow becoming unresponsive/crashing?

[benjaminz]

fwiw, max’s LFO Midi is working no problem
would be awesome if clip automation was stable! lmk if i can help w/ more detailed reporting in any way on my end.

[dan_derks]

oh! that perhaps confirms some assumptions about how Live handles automation (much of Live is audio-driven. its scheduler is single-focus and gives priority to the audio thread over data. as such, a lot of things that seem like data are actually handled in the audio thread, as this gives a cohesion to the whole system’s stability, but makes this sorta thing hard to nail down.). i’ll dig into that.