These days I was working with bach and enjoyed it as always.
But there two things I'm not really happy about. I know that they have been discussed but – sorry – I'd like to insist again because they seem important – at least to me. Please apologize if this message is long. I'd be also glad to have some feedback if you think that my "problems" are the result of an inefficient coding.
1. The pattrstorage problem.
It's, at least for me, a real problem. The pattrworld, Pattrstorage is a very powerful tool in max, especially, when you're working with a large amount of data. Not only to store data, but also to transport, query, modify etc. A little example. I've built, nothing new, a synth with advanced random features concerning the envelopes. The synth works either as a "normal" synth with midi, osc or whatever controls. But it works also through "remote" message control. This controls should be presented as a score, like the beautiful bach.score, roll.
That means that I need two ways of (parameter) representations, which are complementary. The first is, let's say, an enhanced score (with bgslots, breakpoints etc.) and the second as a typical UI, which we all know from our maxpatches. The score allows a (selective) reduction of complexity and of course all the advantages of symbolic representation. The second is a clear, parametrical representation of all (active) data but on the same "page", instead of beeing layered into a bach.slot. ––
To query (and often modify) the data in the "normal" maxbased UI, I use autopattr and pattrstorage (often grab etc., works also very well with javascript...).
Anyway, I'd love to use directly the bach.slot as function or whatever editor-UI. Unfortunately, that's problematic for different reasons – am I wrong? The first reason is that the bach.slots are not seen by pattrstorage. Yes, there are workarounds (for eg. bach.slot and textedit as patterized object), but if you have a certain amount of data the @out t option can seriously slow down your data flow (traumatized), so It's probably not an option if your poly runs already on 16+ voices and you ask max to do a lot of random stuff with maybe a javascript or two on every event.
So what would be definitely great:
A pattrizeable bach.slots where you can decide if the data will be saved in the pattrstorage as native or text, i.e. maxformat (is this completely crazy?). That would allow me to quit using the function slot, and other object which are poor tools compared to the bach.slot. You could even use the z-slot as a multidimensional UI...
My (human-network) support-suggestion to the problem:
a) All members of the forum send a mail to cycling asking for, I quote Daniele,
.the enhanced support for pattrstorage (prevent interpolation and "store state" only at given moments)
b) I'll post it on the Max/Msp facebook to give this request more public.
2.Select-operate in score,rolls based on Slot-content
Please add this feature. I'm sure it's a difficult task, but hey, if the slot as a tool is so powerfull for parameterstorage we should also be enabled to operate on it without having to look inside each slot. Of course, there are workarounds through lambda but that also means a lot of naming renaming and so on stuff, which makes your life a bit less happy when working with bach. So having the possibility to select notes based on their slot-content would make me happy :–) and seems very usefull.
Sorry for beeing so long. And thanks to your attention.
Wish you all a nice evenening,
m.