Tutorials and Topics - Peabody Computer Music

Audio I/OAudio input andoutput with MSPWhen ASIO is in use, the pop-up menus allow you to set the clock source for your audiohardware and whether or not to prioritize MIDI input and output over audio I/O.The next three fields in the DSP Status window monitor the amount of signal processingMSP is currently doing. The CPU Utilization field displays a rough estimate of the howmuch of your computer's CPU is being allocated for crunching audio in MSP. The Pollcheckbox turns on and off the CPU Utilization auto-polling feature (it will updateautomatically four times a second when this is checked). If you turn off auto-polling, youcan update the CPU readout manually by clicking on the Update button.The number of Function Calls gives an approximate idea of how many calculations arebeing required for each sample of audio. The number next to Signals Used shows thenumber of internal buffers that were needed by MSP to connect the signal objects used inthe current signal network.Both of these fields will update whenever you change thenumber of audio objects or how they are patched together.The next two sections have Override checkboxes next to a number of the pop-up menus.When checked, Override means that the setting you pick will not be saved in thepreferences file for the current audio driver. By default, all Overrides are disabled,meaning that the currently displayed settings will be saved and restored the next time youlaunch Max/MSP.You can set the audio sampling rate with the Sampling Rate pop-up menu. For full-rangeaudio, the recommended sampling rate is 44.1 kHz. Using a lower rate will reduce thenumber of samples that MSP has to calculate, thus lightening your computer’s burden,but it will also reduce the frequency range. If your computer is struggling at 44.1 kHz, youshould try a lower rate.The I/O Vector Size may have an effect on latency and overall performance. A smallervector size may reduce the inherent delay between audio input and audio output, because39