Hi Luigi,

Here's a little decription of the modules that make up the Metastudio. The metastudio is basically a set of modules with a patch and sequence storage and recal system and some GUIs

seq-5t-32 is a 5-trigger drum sequencer
seq-32 is a 2 trigger, 2 number and 1 radio button sequencer
seq-mod-32 is a sequence modifier. chan-mod-32 is a trigger modifier. These two units are used to modify the sequence in terms of the duration or polyrhythmic subdivision of the beat, multiple re-triggers within a beat, probability of a trigger event and gate duration (which I haven't used yet, but it's useful for making note lengths etc ;-)
sinclickr~, sinoiseclickr~ and sinhclickr~ are drum synthesizers. They model the slight randomness of real analogue drums by introducing a random element to the timings of the envelopes.
chunksamplay32~ is a sample player that uses the granular timestretch process. The window size and playback pitch of the sample may have an envelope applied to them.
lead-lag allows you to beatmatch, DJ-style, the sequence with another playing source such as a record. The , and . keys slow down and speed up the sequence for 1 beat, thus providing seamless beatmatching (although it's still up to you and your ears to get it right :)
There are a variety of mixing modules: mix~ stmix~ mixpan~ mixpan+ mix_5~ xfade~ fadex~ xfade_aux~
There are a number of effects modules: pish~ vcf_adsr~ freeverber~ ssb~ sigpack_decimate~ sigpack_foldback~ sigpack_foldover~ sigpack_saturate~
The mono303~ module provides a nice GUI and slow PWM for the bassemu~ external.
buzz-board is basically a keyboard, i.e. it turns the computer keyboard into a piano keyboard. * and / keys change the octave, < and > keys change the radio button, zsxdcvgbhnjmq2w3er5t6y7ui9o0p are the notes.
samplemap is just mapping input numbers to output numbers. So, if you have the radio buttons in seq-32 output going to the samplemap, you can change what sample each setting produces. Used with samplebox_32~ and chunksamplay32~, or resynth_fft~ and samplebox_32~.
resynth_fft~ does the basic phase vocoder with a couple of twists - timescratch makes an LFO change the sample position (so you are scratching time!). Pitchscratch does the pitch. Like chunksamplay32~'s window size and pitch, there is a start and end value for the depth and frequency of the LFO, so you can create complex time variations of the original timbre.

So - there's a lot in there. Much of it is simply wrapping stuff from the audio examples so that it has a GUI and a patching system. The patching system is msgfile based, as are the sequencers. load and save do what you'd expect. store saves the current settings of the GUI in the msgfile, and new creates a new sequence pattern, copying the current pattern into it (so you can create variations).
seq-32 has a step input, and space misses a step. The controls for this are: tog sets the trigger (check box) that will be programmed, chan sets it up so the midi channel (or radio button on the buzzboard) will be stored in the radio-buttom of the sequence. MIDI note numbers are stored in the top number and velocities in the bottom if the vel box is checked. if vel and only are checked then note numbers are stored in the bottom number.
Many randomization functions exist, sometimes with a probability distribution curve, sometimes with a range.
The are also recording modules for streaming to disk.

All modules are fully automatable externally from the second inlet. Inside each patch is a [pd automation] subpatch - the list of symbols is in here. [symbol number( is the format for the list to automate parameters. Also, [file $1( and [patch $1( for loading a patch file and recalling a patch, from the third inlet.

When you load the demo in demodrum with the big red bang, the demo sequence should play. some modules (cupd, list_sum) have not yet been incorporated into PD extended, but the patch should still work. If the PD window complains that it "couldn't load" some module or other, try loading the enclosed PD patch before loading a metastudio PD file. Note: I have a problem with the Windows version - msgfile seems to be broken on my machine. I will write to IOhannes to get him to fix this!!!

Externals needed for the full functionality: freeverb~ bassemu~ vasp (to normalize samples in the samplebox_32~) and ekext, zexy and svf~ and playlist

OK, hopefully this helps. I know this isn't too easy to get started. Look at how the symbols between the 5-trigger sequencer and the sequence modifier correspond. These two objects control the rhythmic evolution, and you can get some really complex rhythmic variations by altering the sequence modifier parameters. Good luck!

Best,
Ed

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