Impulse metronome
The simplest possible metronome, synchronized to its parent interval. Will send an impulse on each beat.
Free metronome
A desynchronized metronome. It can ignore the parent interval’s tempo and will instead beat at its own unrelated speed, a bit like the [metro] objects in Pure Data or Max/MSP.
If “Quantify” is set on “Free”, then the raw frequency in Hertz will be used as tempo source. Else, the parent tempo is used. The rate can be chosen with the musical division selector.
See Free Metronome for the current time-chooser-based version and legacy behaviour.
Messages, routing and storage
| Task | Processes |
|---|---|
| Send a manual trigger or hold a repeated trigger | Bang and Button |
| Gate, select or distribute values | Spigot, Mux and Demux, Switch |
| Count arrivals or walk through a sequence | Counter, Enumerator |
| Retain and release messages | Buffer queue, Value delay |
| Join asynchronous values | Rendezvous |
| Store indexed data | Tables |
| Combine or choose inputs | Value Mixer, Multi-choice |
| Parse text and binary values | Regex, String / byte conversion, Value serialization |
Where a process uses musical or absolute durations, see Time Chooser. “Every tick” means every execution processing block, not every beat or graphics frame.
String processing
String tool
Send UTF-8 Text to apply ASCII trim, optional Slice (Start and Length in Unicode codepoints), literal Find/Replacement, ASCII Case, Reverse, Rotate left, Repeat and padding. Min length, Max length and Max bytes bound the result. Negative slice Start counts from the end; Length -1 retains the remainder. The output is Text, with failures on Error. Reversal works on codepoints, not grapheme clusters, so combined characters can separate.
Split string
Splits Text into Parts using a literal Delimiter. An empty delimiter splits Unicode codepoints. Keep empty retains empty fields; Max parts and Max bytes bound processing. Invalid UTF-8 or exceeded limits are reported on Error.
Join string
Joins a string list on Parts using Separator, emitting Text. Max bytes bounds output; invalid UTF-8 and limit failures go to Error. This is literal joining, not CSV quoting. Use Value serialization when nested values or typed fields need a defined interchange format.
File operations
These processes work with raw string data. Async execution keeps file operations on a worker; Sync can block execution and should not be used for slow storage during a real-time performance. Observe Busy, Success and Error rather than assuming a request completed immediately.
Read File
Select Path and trigger Read. Mode chooses Whole, Range, Stream or Autostream. Whole reads a bounded file; Range uses byte Offset and Count; Stream requests chunks; Autostream delivers chunks as execution advances. Maximum bytes bounds reads, and Timeout bounds stream worker requests. Outputs include Data, Bytes, Lines, EOF, Busy, Success, Error and Timed out. Async Autostream may temporarily lack a chunk on startup or with slow sources; it is not an uninterrupted real-time streaming guarantee or a FIFO session.
Read File Line
Select Path, trigger Open, then send Next for each line. Rewind restarts the cursor and Close ends it. Maximum line bytes bounds a line. Line, Line number, Bytes, Open, EOF, Busy, Success and Error expose results and status. LF and CRLF are supported, including blank lines.
Write File
Each raw-string arrival on Data performs the selected Mode at Path: Ignore does nothing, Write replaces the file, WriteRange overwrites a byte range while preserving surrounding bytes, and Append adds data. Offset and Count apply to WriteRange. Line ending chooses None, LF or CRLF; Maximum bytes bounds writes. Bytes, Lines, Busy, Success and Error report results. Equal consecutive messages are distinct writes; retained values are not automatically replayed.
Save paths support %n (available numbered name) and %t (date/time). To append several chunks into one file, use a fixed resolved path rather than a fresh-name template for every write. For sampled device data with address columns and playback, prefer CSV recorder.