One of the fundamental aspects of working in Max is the notion of creating processes
that progress or act over a period of time. Traditionally, time values in Max have always
been expressed using milliseconds as the unit. In Max 5, time values for many objects (
see the complete list) may also
be expressed in a number of human-friendly units. There are two types of time values:
fixed values are similar to milliseconds in that they express an amount of time that doesn't change.
Tempo-relative units vary according to the current tempo set in a
transport object.
With tempo-relative units, particularly bars/beats/units, you can specify a time
interval or a time
position. A time offset or position refers to the value of a
transport, so for example, the time argument to the
timepoint object is considered a position. A time
interval, by contrast is a distance or an amount of time. Interval, quantization, and delay attributes of objects are generally time intervals. The bars/beats/units method of specifying time will be interpreted differently depending on context. A time of 1 1 0 as a
position is 0 ticks. A time of 1 1 0 as an
interval in 4/4 time is (4 * 480) + 480 ticks (2400 ticks).
The
translate object has a
mode attribute that can convert time units as either intervals or positions.
Here is a listing of the note and tick values associated with common note durations. Note value abbreviations that can be used in Max to specify time are in bold.