# how to play back from a stereo/multichannel buffer? (possibly embarrassing question) **URL:** \ **Category:** Usage Questions\ **Created:** [25 October 2021 20:03 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98 "2021-10-25T20:03:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![balintlaczko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@balintlaczko](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/balintlaczko)\ **Post date:** [25 October 2021 20:03 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/1 "2021-10-25T20:03:12Z")
Dear all, Finally starting to get going with the fl.universe~. I am just wondering if it is possible to somehow make a multistream fl.read~ that can read all channels of a buffer. I tried `fl.streamid~ =2` into `fl.tag~ channel` into the right inlet of an `fl.read~ =2`, but I still seem to get mono on my `fl.sink~ =2`. What’s the “canonical” way of reading multichannel buffers? Thanks a lot, and please excuse my noobity. ---
**Author:** ![a.harker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/framelib.discourse.group/a.harker/32/21_2.png) [@a.harker](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/a.harker)\ **Post date:** [25 October 2021 20:30 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/2 "2021-10-25T20:30:20Z")
Hmm. The process you’ve described using fl.streamid~ should work, but I think this may be an issue of counting from 1 and 0 - streams are counted from 0 and channels from 1, so you might need an [fl.+~ 1]. Can you let me know if this works? I’m thinking this should be easier to do (perhaps setting the channel param to a negative value could auto-map to streams), but in the meantime we should debug the issue you are having. It might be worth revising what is counted from zero and what from one - I’m on the fence about this one - I might have gone too max-centric - I should look at how channels are counted in supercollider also. ---
**Author:** ![balintlaczko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@balintlaczko](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/balintlaczko)\ **Post date:** [25 October 2021 22:16 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/3 "2021-10-25T22:16:59Z")
Thaaanks for the lightning fast response! Yes, it was the +1, I was dumb not to try that. Sorry! Don’t know how many things it would break but personally I would prefer everything to start from 0, but I know that it is often mixed in Max, so I also understand if you conform to that. This is what seems to work: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/framelib/original/1X/38d57ac4652153729864f61bf312319daa47092c.png) ---
**Author:** ![james.bradbury](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/framelib.discourse.group/james.bradbury/32/15_2.png) [@james.bradbury](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/james.bradbury)\ **Post date:** [27 October 2021 16:38 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/4 "2021-10-27T16:38:46Z")
> [@balintlaczko](#): > > Don’t know how many things it would break but personally I would prefer everything to start from 0, but I know that it is often mixed in Max, Across all the different interfaces a lot so its quite normal to get them mixed up 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![a.harker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/framelib.discourse.group/a.harker/32/21_2.png) [@a.harker](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/a.harker)\ **Post date:** [27 October 2021 17:53 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/5 "2021-10-27T17:53:43Z")
I’m inclined to think about channels from zero with -1 mapping to streams, which would make this easier, but I need to check on SC and look at where else I count from 1 in FrameLib - as far as I recall almost everything counts from 0 in FrameLib, but inputs in Max for FL objects are counted from 1 (as in [1] [2] notation etc. and possibly in info strings that Max prints) - I believe that’s purely in the Max wrapper, however. ---
**Author:** ![a.harker](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/framelib.discourse.group/a.harker/32/21_2.png) [@a.harker](https://framelib.discourse.group/u/a.harker)\ **Post date:** [17 March 2022 09:52 UTC](https://framelib.discourse.group/t/how-to-play-back-from-a-stereo-multichannel-buffer-possibly-embarrassing-question/98/6 "2022-03-17T09:52:36Z")
As an update I’ve implemented this on a breaking changes branch - I’m very much inclined to roll this one in, but this and my other breaking change need a bit of testing and some opinions. I hope to have this out to people soon.