[PD] Routing PD audio on MacOSX

[Adam Lindsay]

Frank Barknecht said this at Mon, 19 Jan 2004 20:46:29 +0100:

>Patrick Pagano hat gesagt: // Patrick Pagano wrote:
>
>> Soundflower already works with pd. Bam. done.

That's what pleased me the most. Instant gratification. (I've since tried
Jack Tools, and ran into the same problems others on the list have. Jack
is clearly more powerful--it just doesn't work.)

>Yeah, but: Max works, Pd has problems. Bam, done, too? 
>
>Not done for me. Pd runs on Linux and Irix, Max doesn't. Bam! Jack
>runs on Linux, Soundflower doesn't. Bam! I even have to use
>non-open-source software just to unpack Soundflower. Bam! Soundflower

Folks on Mac OS X (if I may make a broad generalisation) are less
ideologically pure with regards to Free- and Open Source Software, and
more interested in usability. When I came to Pd, it wasn't perfect, but
it was usable (and gratis) on Mac OS X. (Max/MSP wasn't.)

There was a bit of work to be done to get Pd closer to the "Bam"
usability point on the Mac, but that was fun in a sense. Hacking
makefiles and twiddling code is interesting to a point (closer to user-
space for me, personally), but needing to hack at every level (down to
audio drivers) becomes a bit tiresome for some, and is simply beyond
others' abilities.

I really hadn't meant to touch off another theological debate, just to be
informative to other users who want a little instant gratification.

Incidentally, when Jack Tools gets going more easily on MacOSX, looks
like Soundflower will be compatible with it in that it provides another
virtual device, and so more complex routings could be achieved between
the two. (e.g. iTunes -jack-> SC3 -soundflower-> Pd -> dac) 

adam
-- 
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 Adam T. Lindsay                      atl at comp.lancs.ac.uk
 Computing Dept, Lancaster University   +44(0)1524/594.537
 Lancaster, LA1 4YR, UK             Fax:+44(0)1524/593.608
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