Hello there!

After one year of using pd, I still don't know how to set it up properly in WinXP. I've tried to solve the problem with "Jack for Windows", but without success. I didn't even managed to get any sound through Jack. Maybe it's because I'm not good in terms such as "compiling", "distros", kernell", "dll" etc. Finally I've abandoned the Jack solution, partially because there's no step by step configuration guide for average pc user.
For the last week or two, I'm playing with various startup flags in pd, hoping those "hidden" settings could lead to lower latency performance, but nothing again. I created a MS-DOS batch file, following the instructions from here: http://puredata.info/docs/manuals/pd/x3.htm#s1.1
The author of documentation says:
"Using an RME Hammerfall, and specifying "-audiobuf 5 -blocksize 32" I was able to get about 7 milliseconds of throughput delay (as measured by the latency-measurement patch in 7.stuff/tools.) As always, you can specify "-channels" to any even number up to the maximum (32, I think) or can specify channel count separately for input and output (-inchannels and -outchannels)."
Coincidentally, I own RME HDSP 9652 too, but still cannot get lower than 35 msecs of delay without crackling. What's even worse, when I choose "ASIO Hammerfall DSP" for in/out device, pd ignores that, leaving "ASIO(via portaaudio)" option unchecked, which means, I cannot use that device at all.
If I choose "standard MMIO" device and HDSP ADAT 1+2 in/out pair, 50 msecs is the lowest possible glitch-free delay, and I get myriad of "resyncing audio" messages on pd console.
If I choose "Microsoft Sound Mapper" as device, I'm limited to only two channels of input/output and, still too high, 35 msecs of delay.
And finally, when I check "ASIO4ALL v2", only two channels of i/o again, but this time with significantly more acceptable delay time. (latency = 5.6 msecs according to pd's measuring patch, which is more than ok for me).

I'm on WinXP SP3, Intel Core 2 Duo @ 3.16 GHz, 3.25 GB RAM and I'm very happy with the results I get from other audio software.
Switching to another OS or Max/MSP is not an option for me. Simply, I'm trying to get multichannel i/o option with low latency.

Is there anybody who can help me tune my pd settings?
Thank you very much for your help.

sinewave

Don't want to sound too pessimistic, but i've been strugling with this since i started using pd 4 years ago and never got a decent solution to it. The only thing i've learned so far is to play very up-tempo on my guitar

I think this is something that has to be arranged at the core of the application, so it's something the developer could look at. But I'm under the impression that - since on linux and osx this problem doesn't exits - there isn't too much interest in doing something about it.

Thank you domien for you answer. I can't believe that you've adopted your guitar playing style... You must be in love with pd! I cannot even imagine playing my guitar with time offset.

Ok, what do you think if we (pd/WinXP users) invest some money in developing. I mean, to form some kind of group and try to collect sufficient amount of money for the developers. Maybe I'm totally wrong with the idea cause I'm maybe breaking the open source ethics, but who knows, maybe the group will be so huge that needed money-per-user amount will be very small.

sinewave

Sinewave, have you considered installing Ubuntu (with a dual boot, so you can keep your XT) on your machine?

The whole problem could then be resolved in an hour.

Of course, Samuel, I did considered, but before making that step, I just want to research if there is anything I can do in order to finally get pd rocking on WinXP. Thank you anyway for your answer.
sinewave