MC Hardware Interface

Using MC with your hardware

MC provides flexible managment of multichannel signals, but interfacing with your hardware requires system-specific setup and routing. The adc~ object for audio input has a multichannel counterpart (mc.adc~) with a single multichannel output, and the dac~ object for audio output has a multichannel counterpart (mc.dac~) with a single multichannel input.

Working with Multichannel Input

MC input from your audio interface into your Max patch is done using the mc.adc~ object. You define the channels that will be accessed, and the object will output a multichannel signal with the audio stream from those input channels.


  • Create an instance of the mc.adc~ with the input channels that you want to access. The channels are numbered starting with 1.
  • Connect the multichannel signal output to any processing or monitoring objects to work with the MC content.

You can also instantiate a multichannel version of the ezadc~ object by typing mc.ezadc~ into a new object box. The object will use the first two inputs of your audio interface, and will produce a two-channel signal.

Working with Multichannel Output

MC output to your audio interface from your Max patch is accomplished using the mc.dac~ object. You deine the output channels to be used, and the object will route a multichannel signal to the selected output channels.


  • Create an instance of mc.dac~ with the output channels that you want to access. The channels are numbered starting at 1.
  • Connect a multichannel signal to the input of the object to send the audio stream to your interface.

You can also instantiate a multichannel version of the ezdac~ object by typing mc.ezdac~ into a new object box. mc.ezdac~ will output all channels of the incoming multichannel signal to the corresponding output channels of your audio interface.


Audio Hardware Routing

In addition to setting up the inputs and outputs of your patch, you will also need to verify the hardware input and output routings are correct. This is done using the I/O Mappings dialog in the Audio Status window. This window allows you to establish mappings between channels on your audio interface hardware and Max's 1024 virtual channels.

  • Choose Audio Status... from the Options menu to show the Audio Status Window.
  • Click on the I/O Mappings button at the bottom of the Audio Status window to show the I/O Mappings subwindow.

  • For each input channel you wish to use for multichannel input (via mc.adc~), choose a hardware input from the pop-up menu. For each output channel you wish to use for multichannel output (via mc.dac~), choose a hardware output from the pop-up menu. You can assign the same hardware input or output to any number of virtual channels.