[PD] dac~'s signal too loud?

[derek holzer]

Nick,

i've seen this problem when an incorrect audiobuf or blocksize is used 
as a starting argument. it sounds like clipping distortion, but it 
isn't. for example, i have my PD startup arguments optimized for using 
an external soundcard [far beyond the capabilities of my built-in i8X0] 
and with the Jack server. so, if i try to run it with the same settings 
on the built-in soundcard and no Jack, my testtone sounds like a 
strangled scream. try different audiobuf settings, blocksizes and maybe 
tweak a few other things [match sampling rate of PD to sampling rate of 
soundcard, etc etc.]. typing
pd --help
will give you the list of all startup arguments. when you get ones that 
work for you, make a .pdrc file of them and put it in your home 
directory. mine looks like this:

-blocksize 512
-channels 8
-path /usr/lib/pd/iemabs
-lib Gem
-lib zexy
-lib iemlib1
-lib iemlib2
-lib iem_mp3
-lib iem_t3_lib
-lib OSC

but you will want bigger blocksize and fewer channels, plus links to 
whatever externals you have.
best,
Derek

Nick Morrison wrote:

>On Mon, Apr 28, 2003 at 11:15:18PM +0930, Nick Morrison said:
>  
>
>>I'm running pd on FreeBSD 4.8, and it came out of the ports.  It's
>>version 0.35.23.  I'm running it on a tiny Sony Vaio laptop, which is
>>said to have a Yamaha DS-1E (YMF754) -based sound device.
>>
>>Has anyone else had (or solved!) this particular issue?
>>    
>>
>
>PS - I tried lowering the master and pcm volumes using the system (not pd)
>mixer tool, and the distortion was apparent for the whole range.  In other
>words, I'm *fairly* sure the distortion is coming from pd.
>
>It should be noted that other sound applications (xmms, spiralsynth, etc)
>do not exhibit the same behaviour.
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>Nick!
>
>  
>