So I'm running on 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, OS X 10.3.9 Panther.

Is Panther why Jack is worse than portaudio or am I simply configuring Jack poorly?

I don't need Jack to do any funny business...I simply need it to route audio from pure data out dac 1 2 and dac 5 6 to my firebox (soundcard) and then to the amp. (I also have inputs on ADC 1-4). So I don't need any virtual ins outs whatnot - the only time I got it working I did have to setup "routing" so that "puredata out0" is connected to "firebox out1" etc... Should I mess with the buffer? I also unchecked everything in preferences/ jack router because I was pissed - maybe I should leave some of those checked? But I do not need the router - at all - I can't run another app anyway with what PD is doing.

With portaudio I run a 100ms buffer in puredata - with Jack, it all went to hell, but I'm really hoping to get down to 50ms so that I'm not a f'in 16th note behind.

That said, I'm going to get a PC when I'm not poor...yeah right, I live in the States...20% unemployment...before the riots and looting start (maybe I should wait it out actually). Anyway, I'll start a thread for dream computers but I'm pretty single-minded right now:

3GHz processor
1GHz front-side bus (or one of those fancy new things that's faster than FSB if I can afford it.) FYI, my G4 has 133MHz FSB...ewww.

Load Debian.

Load Puredata.

Also, is there any way to put priority to audio above the GUI? - I'm running close to 10 16-step sequencers and other graphics that give me info, but I don't need them to run well - I wish there was a separate graphics buffer.

I usually get better performance with Jack, and would recommend using it over portaudio (others would too) for much better performance and efficiency. Much less than 50ms. Thats on a 1ghz powerbook too.

what buffer size have you got set in jackpilot prefs? and what versions are you using of pd and jack?

Everyone does, I want to get this working right.

It's PD 0.39.3 extended, I have not updated because of my OS. Panther 10.3.9

JACK version 0.101.3
Jack Router version 0.8.3
JackPilot version 1.6.0

I experimented with "small" and "large" buffers in Jack, though 2048 samples (largest buffer available?) is minuscule compared to the buffer that PD is running.

Perhaps the buffer should be set to 64 to match the block size of PD?

Also, I have never wanted to update my OS, thinking that Panther was designed for my hardware and that later cats would run slower...

Goddamnit Jim, I'm a musician not a computer scientist!

heh i feel like that sometimes

Pd assumes the block size set in Jack prefs, so changing it in Pd whilst running in Jack mode is irrelevant.

Seriously though, try updating Jack to the latest that Panther can handle. Not sure what version but it should be on the web site. A lot has changed since 0.39 too.

You might have to bit the bullet and upgrade to Tiger at least. THis laptop is on 10.4.11 running latest Pd and most recent (i think) Jack and latency is fine. Tiger runs pretty swiftly on this - as fast as panther.

Great, that bit about Pd using the block size from Jack may be what I needed. I'll work on it a bit, check all of the versions and post back. Thanks, and I'm really excited that I might be able to "play" keyboard through PD.

Goddamnit Jim, I'm a musician not a banker.

Well, I gave up, after a day of trying to learn Unix and blah blah compile this and oh wait you can't get Xcode tools for old mac...i probably came pretty close to killing my poor old and faithful laptop, long story short.

Here's a dumb question: where can i get a compiler

So I'm back to portaudio and now I'm just trying to figure out the smoothest way of setting up an entirely new computer and making sure that linux is okay with my hardware.

In the meantime, I'll have a delay line setup so that my keyboard solos will play exactly one measure (I figure that's better than a 16th note, or a half note or anything) after I strike a key...should make for some interesting counterpoint.

Has anyone ever had issues where a certain keyboard won't talk MIDI to a certain device...?

In this case it's an M-Audio to a FatMan synth. It accepts data from PD, and I know the MIDI outs/ins and cables are good. And that it should be a standard Device ID (127...maybe...)

Attach a patch - thats the best way. Theres too many variables otherwise and its hard to pin it down. THe only JAck you can run on 10.3 is 0.74, so support for it was dropped sometime ago. Like I said there have been a lot of core changes to the OS since. Likewise for PD. Installing Linux might just be opening another can of worms, but if you feel confident, go for it.

What are you trying to compile?

99% of the time something isn't working its been user error! THe Fatman looks a nice synth - was considering building one in the winter!