mstamm@itin.fr wrote:
Hi, Sorry but I have another question in the same day... I have a "dac object" and a "number" to variate its value. When the number comes to a negative or positive number, the speaker generates a "tac" sound, and I don't understand why. Can anyone help? Thanks, Mickaël.
Yeah, it's all in the documentation, and in MSPs Intro to DSP book on his website. So read on anyways. http://www.crca.ucsd.edu/~msp/techniques.htm
Typically, you'd never connect a control, or DC source (number) directly to a signal [dac~] output. Instead, you'd connect a signal object like oscillator [osc~] (or any ~ object) to the [dac~] outputs
[osc~ 440]
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[dac~]
In Pd, number objects are 'control' (static, outputs when prompted) objects, but [dac~] and all "~" objects are 'signal' (sampled, continuous) objects. You're essentially sending a DC voltage to your speakers, then pushing the speaker cone from neutral (0)to full scale(1,-1) in one sample time (1/44100 of second), hence the click, just like connecting a 1.5V battery directly across the speaker contacts.
If you use the Shift key while scrolling your number object, you'll hear a much softer click, as it will increment/decrement in steps of 0.01 (1%) of "full scale".
Luckily, most soundcard outputs are not DC coupled; so the speaker won't stay pushed out there. DC offset is a problem in analog and digital audio systems because it leads to asymmetrical clipping in the signal processing chain, which sounds pretty bad. Cheap sound cards often have a DC offset in their input circuitry. Sound editing software includes a "DC Offset Removal" filter for this. In high-power speaker systems DC offset can heat (perhaps overheat) the output transistors and speaker coils. Mixers and power amplifiers have "subsonic" filters to block DC.
In Pd, to block DC offsets, we frequently use the [hp~ 5] object, which passes all interesting audio, and blocks DC.