[PD] basic question

[Michal Seta]

On 9/7/01 2:42 PM, "Secret Agent Gel" <sagel at damnfine.org> wrote:

> one totally newbie question. ive been going thru the 11 page tutorial online
> as well as the number examples in the pd folder. conceptually im not grasping
> some things. can pd be used as a sequencer - for itself or other machines?

yes it can.  But do you really want to start designing a sequencer now?
well, if you do, you need the MIDI objects.  Right-click on the canvas will
pop up a window with a list of objects included in the distribution (I think
it's always up to date...).  Check the MIDI section.  Those are objects that
will let you talk to a MIDI device and read from it.  And then you use those
in combination with all the 'control' (the ones without '~' by their name)
to construct the logic of sequencer.  A good idea is to look at [qlist] and
[textfile], they might be useful in your sequencer design.  also zexy lib
has an extern called msgfile which is [textfile] enhanced...   perhaps even
more useful.

> i 
> get the whole making patches thing, but how do i play them (thinking like
> patches on a synth)? and/or do i play them from pd only?

conversely, if you want to use PD as a sound 'module' and control it with an
external MIDI controller then you build your nice sounds/dsp routines and
use midiin notein ctlin etc as triggers/controllers.

Sorry, can't help you with MIDI setup.  I don't yet have a MIDI interface to
use with PD.

./MiS