Hi Jeffrey! I ve been trying to minimize latency in Pd for a year now, experimenting with various OS and hardware. I m using Pd for the same purpose, that is live processing of electric instruments (mainly a guitar).
I would recommend using a Linux distro, because they have "realtime" kernels, and the JACK server, plus you can get the hid object in Pd (which does not exist on windows). If you want to play live you want to go for latencies below 7 or 6 ms. I get a 5 ms latency on an old Dell laptop (1 Ghz) with the latest Fedora with the CCRMA realtime kernel.
I can also give you a couple of hints about the interface (I personnaly have hacked a cheap gamepad and it works great). You can reasonably expect to get a low-latency live set at a very low cost, provided that you have a quite recent laptop to work with.

Pierre

2010/1/31 Derek Holzer <derek@umatic.nl>
"Unnoticeable" latency usually refers to the musician not noticing the difference in time between when they press the key and when the sound comes out. Any time you add a delayed signal to the original signal, you will notice it. The "slap-back" happens at longer latencies, but at shorter latencies you will hear *very* noticeable comb-filtering. And since no computer-based solution is latency-free, I think you need to re-examine what you are expecting Pd to do. Either that, or go with a dedicated DSP board (and learn the accompanying programming!) which would give you a more guitar-pedal-like "zero-latency" system.

Maybe Marco Donnarumma could give a few words here on processing instruments live. His set uses an electric bass through Pd. My guess is that even the un-processed signal goes through Pd to avoid echos or comb filtering due to latency.

Best,
Derek

Jeffrey Concepcion wrote:

   * in terms of processor capacity, hardware, and sound card

     configuration, what would be the minimum requirements to achieve
     unnoticeable latency (not hear the affected signal as a slap-back
     type of effect)? i've read that 11ms can be achieved and is
     unnoticeable.

--
::: derek holzer ::: http://macumbista.net :::
---Oblique Strategy # 18:
"Balance the consistency principle with the inconsistency principle"


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