Overview | Compiled binaries | How to build | How to cite

sonus

An open source Max/MSP package for sound experimentation and algorithmic composition. A collection of externals coded in C++ and dealing with math, autonomous systems and experimental sound design.

Currently finished externals are:

Generators

• sonus.bytebeat~ A bytebeat parser and generator
• sonus.byteplay~ An efficient player of many bytebeat formulas
• sonus.collatz~ Collatz conjecture based wavetable oscillator
• sonus.ecaosc~ Elementary cellular automata oscillator
• sonus.harmosc~ Harmonic additive oscillator
• sonus.lorenz~ Lorenz attractor based generator
• sonus.neurosc~ Neural network based oscillator
• sonus.nwosc~ User defined wavetable oscillator
• sonus.nowave~ Scrambled wavetable oscillator
• sonus.pdosc~ Phase distorted oscillator
• sonus.pulsar~ Pulsar oscillator
• sonus.roessler~ Rössler attractor based generator
• sonus.rsosc~ Oscillator with random shapes
• sonus.vaosc~ Multishape bandlimited oscillator
• sonus.window~ Window functions generator

Effects and Sample Manipulation

• sonus.bitinv~ Bitcrusher and bit inverter
• sonus.bitman~ Bit manipulator
• sonus.biquads~ Parallel biquad filters
• sonus.buffx Apply effects to buffers
• sonus.bufsnap Save snapshots of a buffer
• sonus.cheby~ Chebyshev waveshaper
• sonus.crossloop~ Buffer loop player with crossfade
• sonus.cryptoverb~ Eerie stereo reverberator
• sonus.fselector~ Continuous selector/mixer
• sonus.halaphon~ Circular panner across multiple speakers
• sonus.quadpan~ Quadraphonic panner
• sonus.summer~ Simple signal mixer
• sonus.wavesets Wavesets based sample manipulation

Neural Networks and AI

• sonus.acti Activation functions
• sonus.acti~ Activation functions (signal rate)
• sonus.ca Cellular automata system
• sonus.dnn Deep neural network implementation
• sonus.ga Genetic algorithm implementation
• sonus.ga.num Genetic algorithm implementation (numbers version)
• sonus.linden Lindenmayer generative system
• sonus.neuron Artificial neuron implementation
• sonus.perceptron~ Classic perceptron implementation

Math and Utilities

• sonus.blist Output different items from a list
• sonus.bozo Output a 1 and then a 0 when a bang is received
• sonus.edist Euclidean distance between two points
• sonus.ftomel Frequency to mel converter
• sonus.hop Hot inlets operations
• sonus.lline Similar to line, but for list of numbers
• sonus.logistic Logistic map calculator
• sonus.lrandom Random items from a list
• sonus.lurn Non repeating random sequences
• sonus.mathc Mathematical constants
• sonus.mbox Pop up dialogs generator
• sonus.meltof Mel to frequency converter
• sonus.mima~ Signal extremes analyzer
• sonus.multirandom Multi-outlet version of random object
• sonus.mumul Multiply numbers for the same factor
• sonus.mumul~ Multiply signals for the same factor
• sonus.quadpanner Quadraphonic panner coefficients
• sonus.summer Numbers summator
• sonus.tent Tent map calculator
• sonus.wtp “The Well-Tuned Piano” tuner

The collection also features six Max for Live devices that use some sonus externals to create synths, effects and modulators.

Compiled binaries

Compiled binaries for both Windows and macOS can be found in the Releases section. Please note that some of the listed externals may not yet be available in the latest compiled version.

How to build

Grab the source inside your Documents/Max 9/Packages (or Max 8, according to your Max/MSP version) folder with git clone https://github.com/valeriorlandini/sonus.git --recursive

cd sonus and then mkdir build to create a folder with your various build files.

cd build to put yourself into that folder.

Mac

Run cmake -G Xcode ..

Next run cmake --build . --config Release or open the Xcode project from this “build” folder and use the GUI.

Note: you can add the -jX option where X is the number of cores to use (e.g. -j4). This can help speed up your builds, though it may sometimes interleave the error output, making troubleshooting more challenging.

If you are running on a Mac M1+ machine, you will likely see an error cannot be loaded due to system security policy when loading your externals in Max. To resolve this, you can ad-hoc codesign your external with codesign --force --deep -s - myobject.mxo.

Windows

You can run cmake --help to get a list of the options available.

Visual Studio 2022:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" ..

Visual Studio 2019:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" ..

Visual Studio 2017:

cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" ..

Having generated the projects, you can now build by opening the .sln file in the build folder with the Visual Studio app (just double-click the .sln file) or you can build on the command line like this:

cmake --build . --config Release

Note: you can add the -jX option where X is the number of cores to use (e.g. -j4). This can help speed up your builds, though it may sometimes interleave the error output, making troubleshooting more challenging.

How to cite

If you are using sonus in an academic context, you are welcome to cite this paper:

Orlandini, V. (2026). sonus, an open-source Max/MSP package for sound experimentation and algorithmic composition. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18600750