Nice work man. Also, good to see you here on the PD forums

I have a patch which creates a dynamically sized "pattern" of N slots, and dynamically creates N inputs. This all works well. The patch generates the necessary tabwrite objects with the necessary integer offset to write an inlet to the proper table position.

Example API:

[pattern 5]

Gives you a pattern with 5 slots, 6 inlets (1st is the trigger!)

Anyway, I would like to do this:

[pattern 5 0 0 1 2 6]

This is a pattern of size 5, with default values of 0 0 1 2 and 6.

How can I access $1 $2 $3 etc when generating messages to the patch where I dynamically create the objects? $1 in a message context is the 1st argument to the message, $1 will just escape the first $.

Know what I'm saying?

Agreed. It's also common to have a envelope follower on a sub patch output which is then patched to a switch~, thereby disabling the sub page when the output reaches a certain threshold.

Have you read the Frodebeats pages on modular beats and physical modeling?
https://www.frodebeats.com/drums
https://www.frodebeats.com/physical-modelling