With our combined knowledge about Max and about the objects that interface with Live, we can now create all kinds of audio FX, instruments, and MIDI FX. However, one of the points that makes Max for Live way more powerful than any Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugin is that we can actually control the host application and get information about the host into our device. Live's Application Programming Interface (API) is the way to access Live through Max for Live. However, in order to control Ableton Live from within a device, we have to tell Max exactly what we want to query/control, and since the Live API is not a chaotic pool of parameters but a hierarchical system, we need to understand how to maneuver to a certain parameter of Live. This is what the Live Object Model (LOM) looks like:

The LOM looks really complicated, but note that first of all, if you look up the LOM in the Max help system, this picture is interactive and meaningful. You can click on the boxes to get to...