Loading Patchies...

Audio Chaining

Audio objects connect together to form a signal chain — sound flows from sources through processors to output. Any object whose name ends with ~ is an audio object.

Audio chain example

✨ Try this patch — FM synthesis using oscillators, expressions, gain control, and frequency analysis.

How It Works

Think of audio chaining like a hardware signal chain: oscillator → filter → amp → speaker. Each ~ object processes the signal and passes it to the next.

Two rules to remember:

  1. End your chain with out~ — nothing is audible until the signal reaches out~
  2. Use gain~ to control volume — connect it just before out~ to avoid clipping
[osc~ 440] → [gain~ 0.5] → [out~]

Browse all audio objects in the object browser under the Audio category.

Try It

Exercise — Simple tone

  1. Create an osc~ 440 object (a 440 Hz sine wave)
  2. Connect it to a gain~ 0.3 object
  3. Connect gain~ to out~
  4. Press play in the transport — you should hear a tone

Exercise — Add a filter

  1. Insert a lowpass~ 800 between osc~ and gain~
  2. Drag the frequency value up and down — hear the tone get brighter and darker

Monitoring Audio

Visualize what's happening in your audio chain:

  • scope~ — oscilloscope, shows waveform shape in real time
  • meter~ — level meter, shows loudness as a visual bar
  • env~ — envelope follower, outputs loudness as a number you can route elsewhere

See Audio Reactivity to use audio data to drive visuals.

Fun Examples

Here's a patch by @kijjaz that generates a beat entirely from mathematical expressions:

Beat example

Or build your own drum machine — try it out and use W A S D to play some drums:

Simple drum machine

Wireless Audio Routing

You don't always need a cable. Use send~ <channel> and recv~ <channel> to route audio wirelessly across the patch:

[osc~ 440] → [send~ synth]          [recv~ synth] → [gain~ 0.5] → [out~]

This keeps complex patches readable by removing long-distance cables.

See Also