I helped out with the Max/MSP implementation of MsPinky, and I love the possibilities of it for people with production + turntable chops. Although, I've yet to take it out of the house cause I don't have a portable sound card that supports 4 inputs. For those who haven't seen the implementation, they did a great job of creating a strong object. Basically, you get an audio rate out indicating direction... with 1 being normal forward play, 0 standing still, -1 backwards, etc. Some scaling and you can literally control anything with it... control delays, filters, FM, etc.

My live patch that I used at the last SF laptop battle was custom made for the event (as it had a no controllers rule so everything had to fire from keyboard and mouse actions). Really basic use of a phasor~ driving wave~ players, as well as some non-loop locked sample players and a mixer and some simple effects.

Here's a really simple idea of how it works. This is a good starting point for any variety of syncronized loop players (i'd post my entire live rig but don't feel like letting others see it till I clean it up a bit heheheh). By using multiples of the phasor~ and pong~, you can create subdivisions of your basic phasor~ frequency allowing playing shorter loops than your phasor~'s length... and with seq~ objects tied to the same thing you can create accurate midi/message stuff.

(please let me know if this works or not, I'm not sure if all these characters are legal for a 'Tribe' post and I don't think I've seen anybody else posting texts of patches here)

max v2;
#N vpatcher 315 137 708 494;
#P window setfont "Sans Serif" 9.;
#P flonum 121 81 35 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P flonum 27 41 35 9 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 221 221 221 222 222 222 0 0 0;
#P newex 27 59 82 196617 expr $f1 / 240.;
#P comment 72 309 299 196617 by mutorsoundsystem - www.mutorsound.com;
#P message 236 81 42 196617 replace;
#P message 236 62 42 196617 replace;
#P message 236 43 42 196617 replace;
#P user ezdac~ 27 295 71 328 0;
#P user gain~ 168 202 46 49 158 0 1.071519 7.94321 10.;
#P user gain~ 121 202 46 49 158 0 1.071519 7.94321 10.;
#P user gain~ 74 202 46 49 158 0 1.071519 7.94321 10.;
#P message 236 24 42 196617 replace;
#P newex 279 81 96 196617 buffer~ forkboy4;
#P newex 279 62 96 196617 buffer~ forkboy3;
#P newex 279 43 96 196617 buffer~ forkboy2;
#P user gain~ 27 202 46 49 158 0 1.071519 7.94321 10.;
#P newex 279 157 83 196617 wave~ forkboy4;
#P newex 195 157 83 196617 wave~ forkboy3;
#P newex 111 157 83 196617 wave~ forkboy2;
#P newex 279 24 96 196617 buffer~ forkboy1;
#P newex 27 157 83 196617 wave~ forkboy1;
#P newex 27 78 55 196617 phasor~ 0.5;
#P comment 72 295 299 196617 basic phasor~ / groove~ player (4 channels);
#P comment 63 41 145 196617 bpm (assuming 4 beat loops);
#P connect 22 0 21 0;
#P connect 21 0 2 0;
#P fasten 2 0 3 0 32 126 32 126;
#P fasten 3 0 8 0 32 188 32 188;
#P connect 15 0 16 0;
#P connect 14 0 16 0;
#P connect 13 0 16 0;
#P connect 8 0 16 0;
#P fasten 5 0 13 0 116 180 79 180;
#P fasten 2 0 5 0 32 126 116 126;
#P connect 21 0 23 0;
#P fasten 6 0 14 0 200 184 126 184;
#P fasten 7 0 15 0 284 188 173 188;
#P fasten 2 0 6 0 32 126 200 126;
#P hidden connect 12 0 4 0;
#P hidden connect 17 0 9 0;
#P hidden connect 18 0 10 0;
#P hidden connect 19 0 11 0;
#P fasten 2 0 7 0 32 126 284 126;
#P pop;