Building My Patch Continued: Filtering/EQ.
Following the Input handling unit, the next piece of my patch that I began work on was the Filtering and EQ unit. I felt that this was essential to my guitar processing rig as it would help the user to control the overall gain and levels of the low, high and middle frequencies, therefore it was the naturual selection to be placed after my input handling unit.
I began by copying the template from the max help files for a 'filter handler patch', that would control the many scalers and filters that would be used. Similarly, I used a template 'filter clearer' from the help files so that I could set the preset levels of the frequency and gain dials when the 'clear filters' message was applied. As both the 'filter clearer' and the 'filter handler' were already in sub-patches I simply needed to connect the seven dials into the inputs and outputs for them both. These seven dials represented 'Low Frequency', 'Low Gain', 'High Gain', 'High Frequency', 'Mid Frequency', 'Mid Gain' and finally 'Mid Q', and to make them easy to identify, I numbered them and placed comment boxes at the side of the unit with each number and its corresponding dail noted.
Once the 'filter clearer' and 'filter handler' were connected to the dials correctly, I connected the 'filter handler' to the 'clear filters' message and a filtergraph, so that the effects of the filters could be cleary seen by the user. I also connected a noise level meter to the handler, so that it would be easy for any user to see whether or not the unit was working.
I decided that, as this was such a crucial piece of my patch, there should be no 'bypass' toggle. Finally, I simply placed a comment box with the title 'Filtering/EQ' at the top of my unit so that it would be easy to identify, and I was done.