User Guide

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Understanding the Lemur’s Open Sound Control Messages
Open Sound Control messages sent by the Lemur consist of a message name followed by
one or more values. Message names begin with a forward slash. So, if you’ve set up an
object on the Lemur to be named Fred, the Lemur will transmit a message starting with
/Fred when you touch the object.
Some Lemur objects use variable names to identify different aspects of objects that you
are touching. For instance, an Area object tracks both horizontal and vertical finger
location. In OSC, these are sent as the variables x and y respectively. If Andy is an Area
object, moving the purple ball inside the Area will transmit two messages:
/Andy.x <value>
/Andy.y <value>
As we saw above, if a Lemur object has only a single value—such as the Fader—its value
is transmitted as x. In other words, a Fader named Fred will transmit /Fred.x followed by
a single value. However, it’s also possible that the x variable contain a list of numbers.
This is true of the MultiSlider, Pads, and Switches.
The Object Reference chapter lists the message format for each Lemur object. If you don’t
like to read manuals, use the SeeingMessages or LemurLog patches to figure what data
each object sends.
Controlling Max/MSP with the Lemur
Here are a couple of common strategies for using the Lemur to control what happens in a
patch in Max/MSP.