The Strange Pulse Toolkit (SPT) is a collection of Max/MSP externals, patchers, and snippets for embedding strange attractors into your patches. It emphasises exploration and experimentation and focuses mainly on the rhythmic potential of strange attractors.
- Strange attractor generators: Lorenz, Dadras, and Thomas attractors as MSP externals with dual, syncable trajectories and RK4/Euler integration.
- Recurrence analysis:
spt.rqaandspt.rpdeprovide real-time recurrence metrics for adaptive feedback or complexity measurement. - Rhythm utilities: Patchers for generating triggers or gates from signals, gate logic, Euclidean rhythms, and arithmetic/quantized rhythm modifiers.
- Signal shaping and display: Scaling, inversion, folding, smoothing, band-pass filtering, recurrence plots, and attractor visualization helpers.
- Feedback building blocks: Audio feedback patchers plus recurrence-driven control utilities for self-monitoring instruments.
- Install the package
Clone (with submodules) directly into your Max Packages folder, or download and drop it there:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/MaxWorgan/StrangePulseToolkit.git "StrangePulseToolkit"Max should pick up the package on restart; the externals live in externals/.
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Explore the overview
Openextras/spt-Overview.maxpatto jump to the attractor, rhythm, signal-shaping, and feedback patchers. -
Play with the demos
Openpatchers/demo1.maxpatandpatchers/demo2.maxpatto see examples of the kinds of instruments you can create. Hack them and adapt to your taste.
The repository already ships with macOS builds in externals/. To rebuild:
cmake -S . -B build -G "Xcode" # or "Ninja"/"Unix Makefiles" on other platforms
cmake --build build --config Release- Requires CMake ≥ 3.19 and a supported compiler (Xcode on macOS, Visual Studio on Windows).
- Binaries land in
externals/. Clean the build tree withrm -rf buildif you need a fresh configuration.
MIT License, © 2025 Max Worgan. See License.md for details.