Hello everyone!

I'm a new Pd user & I'm having some trouble with the audio output of Pd. Baasically , it all sounds distorted & the sound is "grumbling" on most patches I've tried. On the Pd FAQ they say to lower the soundcard volume but it doesn't change anything. For instance, when following this YouTube video:

Also, I have tried to use Seq24 in conjunction with Pd. I use Maple Midi Port to connect both apps but for some tech reasons it doesn't work.

Is there any indept Pd tutorial out there I could read so I can solve all those problems by myself? Google give me one virtual book who look nice but I remember seeing one tutorial with a orange background & lot of visual references, I'm looking for that one & of course YouTube videos are great!

Thanks!

Hi SampleScience!

Regarding your trouble with distorted output, you should increase the latency of your soundcard in audio settings. In windows xp I couldn't get lower than 40 msecs of latency, which is unacceptable for me. I solved the problem by installing asio4all drivers. But I lost multi channel output with asio4all

There are several sources for learning pd, each of them helped me a lot. And this forum of course is really good place to learn.

35 excellent video tutorials:

nice book
http://www.pd-tutorial.com/english/index.html

one more
http://en.flossmanuals.net/puredata

list of pd objects
http://www.umatic.nl/workshop/objects.txt

miller puckette's theory and technique of electronic music
http://crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/techniques/latest/book-html/

first three links contain information on setting up the pd's audio and midi settings.
hope that helps for start...

That really helps! The third link is the one I was looking for.

About ASIO4All: I'm using it, it helps but it's still very much distorted (but less), how much latency do you suggest for at least a clear sound (if it's possible). I have a Pentium D cpu with gig of RAM, something like 1,6ghz for the cpu. I think it's enough to run a simple Pd patche.

Also, I saw a video on YouTube with a pd patche that is called "Drum & Bass Machine", it look very good but I couldn't find it with google. Is it available somewhere on the net, maybe in a Pd patches repository/directory?

Thanks for your help!

if you get a distorted sound also when you don't use the adc~ audio in (for example an osc~ object has a distorted sound too), i think that's not a problem of the latency. what kind of soundchip is used? do these problems occur in other audio software too?
the path you found on youtube: i guess this is a patch of diplipito here in the forum. if i am right, he posted it here:
http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-2990-drum-bass-machine

@toxonic said:

if you get a distorted sound also when you don't use the adc~ audio in (for example an osc~ object has a distorted sound too), i think that's not a problem of the latency. what kind of soundchip is used? do these problems occur in other audio software too?
the path you found on youtube: i guess this is a patch of diplipito here in the forum. if i am right, he posted it here:
http://puredata.hurleur.com/sujet-2990-drum-bass-machine

I use FL Studio v4, Mu-Lab & a lot of plugins & other soft synthesizer apps & I never had any problems... On YouTube I didn't use any patche, I just followed the turorial... I have a distorted sounds on some patches & others are fine, I guess that must be a object or module that is causing the problem?

@SampleScience said:

About ASIO4All: I'm using it, it helps but it's still very much distorted (but less), how much latency do you suggest for at least a clear sound (if it's possible). I have a Pentium D cpu with gig of RAM, something like 1,6ghz for the cpu. I think it's enough to run a simple Pd patche.

Latency should just be as low as you can get it without distortion. I imagine that if ASIO4All is an improvement, latency is the issue, especially if some patches work and others don't. Have you tried increasing the delay in the Audio Settings dialog?

I have the latest Pd-extended running in Windows XP on an AMD 64 2.19GHz. Running the Test Audio and MIDI patch from the Media menu, I can get the delay time down to 40ms at a sampling rate of 44.1kHz without crackles. But more intense patches would likely need more than that.