1. The scsynth server process takes about 5-10 seconds to
initialize even after the "SC3 server started" message appears in
the Max window. If you send any SC3 scripts prior to this initialization,
nothing will happen. This becomes problematic when SynthDefs or other
initialization code need to be sent. Keep clicking, and be (ever-so-slightly)
patient!
2. Issue #1 could be resolved by having the [sc3~] object send
a bang out through an outlet once it receives notification that the
server is initialized. Unfortunately data coming back from the
server through the sclang process is not retrievable in this
version of the object.
3. This also means that you will not see output from SC3 in the
Max window. All SC3 language and server printing goes to the
system console window, to view it use /Applications/Utilities/Console.app.
OSX does a really ridiculous buffering of this window (can anyone
tell me how to circumvent it?), so it may take awhile for the
SC3 messages to appear.
4. Very occasionally I have noticed that one of the UDP ports used by
[sc3~] won't close 'cleanly', and this prevents the object
from working properly. The port will eventually be released.
This seems to happen when working with [sc3~] objects
nested in sub and sub-sub patchers, especially if you are deleting
and creating new ones. You can 'fix' the situation by
creating a new [sc3~] object and using it in place
of the one causing the problem. Or reboot your machine.
5. You will note on the help patcher a comment that [sc3~]
works best when the signal-vector and i/o-vector sizes are both
equal in Max/MSP. This has to do with the way audio buffers are
being filled and sent from scsynth. Other combinations of
signal and i/o vectors will work, but the CPU load gets very
intense. Also, when the i/o vector is more than 4 times larger
than the signal vector you may hear 'skipping' or interrupts in the
sound. Vector sizes smaller than 32 are also difficult. 256/256,
512/512, and 1024/1024 all seem to work very well.
5a. Something has changed in OSX 10.6 which causes problems
with multiple servers. It seems that a large (4096 or greater)
vector size is needed to prevent buffer gaps/clicks when using more
than one server in a patcher. I'm not sure why this is. Sorry!
6. Stereo only for now. I also haven't tested this much with
external audio hardware, but it should work ok...
7. Certain quarks interfere with [sc3~] operation. I believe
they are quarks with a graphic component, which makes sense. Check the
max/msp forum archives for discussion of these.
I'll bet there are many more problems with the
Max5/Macintosh Directions
(sorry, no windows version at present!)