i see theres an option in the DSP status window to change the latency. i thought latency wasnt changeable, i thought it was a result of all the stuff that had to be processed before it could send out the sound.

change-latency

there are 3 different places at which you can speak about "latencies" :

- signal vector latency (that you choose in "signal vector size") : this represent the number of samples that are computed together in max/msp. Note that this signal vector is not really a latency added to the others bellow, it just can smooth your sounds in some rare situation where you want shorter signal vector than your hardware can handle (usually you just put the same size than the I/O vector.)

- I/O vector latency (that you choose in "I/O vector size") : this represent the number of samples that are put together to be send to the DAC in your hardware.

- "driver latency" : finally, the buffer from the software to the hardware : on this one you cannot do anything expect change your sound card/ or interface/ or sound driver. You can mesure it with "latency-test.maxpat" : this is an out/in audio test : divide by 2, and minus by the I/O vector latency, to get your "driver output latency". Bigger to shorter latencies : USB sound cards, Firewire sound card, pcmcia/expresscard/pci sound cards, and finally... my old titanium G4 (in mac os panther only) using internal sound chip: 0.45 ms of latency... 40 shorter than the sound of my actual MacBookPro!

- I/O vector latency (that you choose in "I/O vector size") : this represent the number of samples that are put together to be send to the DAC in your hardware. 

- "driver latency" : finally, the buffer from the software to the hardware : on this one you cannot do anything expect change your sound card/ or interface/ or sound driver. You can mesure it with  "latency-test.maxpat" : this is an out/in audio test : divide by 2, and minus by the I/O vector latency, to get your "driver output latency". Bigger to shorter latencies : USB sound cards, Firewire sound card, pcmcia/expresscard/pci sound cards, and finally... my old titanium G4 (in mac os panther only) using internal sound chip: 0.45 ms of latency... 40 shorter than the sound of my actual MacBookPro!


change latency?