synnack: Eight Devices Built for the Stage and the Patcher

October 31, 2026 · max4.live editorial

Most Max for Live catalogues split cleanly into two piles: instruments and effects that make sound, and utilities that make the rest of your set work. synnack's eight devices sit almost entirely in the second pile — and the collection has still pulled 68,225 downloads. That's a useful signal on its own. The problems being solved here are the ones producers hit repeatedly and rarely find a fix for: reading what Live is doing at a glance, modulating a lot of parameters without eating CPU, and getting at the Live API when you're building your own patches.

The through-line: see what's happening, cheaply

Look across the eight devices and a pattern shows up fast. Four of them exist to display information you can't otherwise see clearly — RMS and correlation, clip play positions, mixer state, the Live API path of a parameter. Two of them are modifications of other people's devices, credited openly in the description, where the change is specifically about usability rather than DSP. And one, the LFO, was explicitly built as a performance experiment.

The other recurring theme is the floating window. Several devices put their interface in a window that stays on top, independent of where the device sits in a rack. That's a stage decision, not a studio one. If you're standing behind a laptop with a controller, you don't want to scroll a device chain to check a meter. Fixing the information in place on screen means you can look up once and get what you need.

The licences are worth noting too. Most of the catalogue carries an Attribution or ShareAlike licence, which fits a body of work that openly builds on other authors' patches and expects to be built on in turn. If you want to go further with floating windows and utility interfaces, the jonasobermueller spotlight covers a different author working similar ground.

Ganz Graf Mod X: audio-reactive visuals with savable presets

Ganz Graf Mod X is by a wide margin the most downloaded device here — 37,652 downloads, a 5/5 rating and 41 comments. It's a mod of Ganz Graf by user vh, and the core change is specific and smart: the Max interface objects were swapped for live.* objects, which means presets save into the Live library like any other device setting.

That single change is what turns a fun patch into something you can use. An audio-reactive visual generator you have to re-dial every session is a toy. One where you can save a look per track, recall it from a clip-triggered preset, and keep it with the set is a tool. It's an audio effect, so you route audio into it the same way you'd route into a meter — a send, a dedicated track, or straight at the end of a chain.

Worth knowing before you download: it was added in March 2013, built for Live 9.0.1 and Max 6.1, and has sat at version 1.0 since the day after it was posted. The 41 comments are the place to check for how it behaves on current versions.

LineFO: an LFO without an oscillator

LineFO is the oldest device in the set — added November 2009 — and the one that has been maintained longest, reaching version 1.6 in September 2016. 16,344 downloads, 4/5, 59 comments, which is the most discussion of any device here.

The premise is in the name. It's a simulated LFO: rather than running an actual oscillator, it uses the Max line object to draw the shapes an LFO would generate. The stated reason is CPU. The author describes running ten or more modulators at once, which is exactly the situation where a conventional LFO device per parameter starts to hurt.

If you build dense modulation setups, this is the one to test first. Put a handful of instances on parameters that need slow movement — filter cutoff, send levels, a reverb's dry/wet — and compare the CPU meter against whatever you're using now. It's a MIDI effect, so it lives on a MIDI track and maps out to parameters elsewhere in the set. Note the metadata: Live 8.3 and Max 5.1.8, with the last update in 2016.

Clip Loop Monitor: the stage problem, solved directly

Clip Loop Monitor has the clearest problem statement of anything in the catalogue. Playing live, you end up squinting at the tiny loop-progress circles in Session view to work out when a clip is going to end. This device throws a big floating window showing the play position of currently playing clips across the first seven tracks — or seven tracks you nominate.

1,757 downloads and a 3/5 rating from a small sample, so it hasn't had the traction of the bigger devices. But if you perform from Session view and launch clips of different lengths, the use case is immediate: you're deciding what to fire next based on where the longest clip currently is. Putting that on screen at readable size changes how far ahead you can plan.

It's a MIDI effect, built for Live 9.0.4 and Max 6.1.2.

The metering and utility tier

Three smaller devices round out the practical side:

• Simple RMS Meter — 7,772 downloads, no rating yet. An RMS and correlation meter based on Hz37's RMS Correlation Meter, with one deliberate difference: it doesn't use gen~, so it doesn't require Max 6. It was made in Live 9 and Max 6.1 beta but is described as working in older versions. If you're on an older rig, this is the version of that idea you can actually run.
• Float Mixer — 1,636 downloads, 5/5. A mod of Thompsonaudio's Master Monitor, changed so the mixer can float as a separate window. It was made for a lecture at Decibel festival demonstrating what Max for Live can do, which tells you something about how direct the modification is.
• ChangeClipColorWhenPlayed — 1,410 downloads, 2/5. Born from a set containing hundreds of recorded sound-design clips, performed live from an APC40. Recolouring clips as they're played is a way of tracking what you've already used in a huge Session grid. The rating is low and there's one comment, so treat it as a concept worth looking at rather than a finished workflow.

getLivePath: for anyone who opens the patcher

getLivePath has only 1,650 downloads but a 5/5 rating, and it's the device most likely to save you an afternoon if you build or modify devices yourself. It tells you the Live path of a selected parameter — the address in the Live API you need in order to get, set or observe that parameter's value.

Anyone who has worked through the Live Object Model documentation to hunt down a path knows why this exists. Rather than tracing the hierarchy by hand, you select the parameter and read the path. It's an audio effect, built on Live 8.3.3 and Max 5.1.9, and it fits naturally alongside the rest of the catalogue: another device whose whole job is to show you something Live keeps hidden.

The eighth entry, Liquid Rhythm, is a bridge device — drum rack channel names and clip MIDI notes load into Liquid Rhythm, and edits push back into the Live clip in real time. It has four downloads and no rating, with a last update in February 2018. It's the odd one out, and it depends on external software.

Where to start

Pick based on what you do:

1. If you want immediate results: Ganz Graf Mod X. 37k downloads and 5/5 is the safest bet in the catalogue, and the preset-saving fix means it survives past the first session.
2. If your CPU meter is your enemy: LineFO. Build a test set with ten instances modulating ten parameters and see what the load looks like.
3. If you perform from Session view: Clip Loop Monitor, with Float Mixer next to it. Both put information on screen where you can see it without clicking.
4. If you patch: getLivePath, kept open in a utility track whenever you're writing API code.

One caveat applies across the board: these devices were added between 2009 and 2013, with version numbers from Live 8.3 through Live 9.0.5 and Max 5.1.8 through 6.1.3. Only LineFO and Liquid Rhythm have been touched since 2013. Read the comment threads before you commit — LineFO's 59 comments and Ganz Graf Mod X's 41 are the best available record of how these behave on newer versions of Live. Browse the wider catalogue if you need a modern alternative for any of them.