Audio Device Out CHOP
Summary
The Audio Device Out CHOP sends audio to any of the attached audio output devices using DirectSound/CoreAudio or ASIO. The second input on the Audio Device Out CHOP can be used for volume control.
Tip: If you get audio popping or audio dropouts, it may be caused by your actual frame rate of your main timeline
- some frames may take too long to compute/render. See Time Slicing. There are four possible remedies:
- The global CHOP Maximum Time Slice Size may be shorter than your worst-case time steps. Its default is .2 seconds set in Edit -> Preferences -> CHOPs -> Maximum Time Slice Size). If any frame takes longer than the Maximum Time Slice Size time to draw, audio will pop.
- Then the audio buffer size can be increased (the Buffer Length parameter defaults to .15 seconds) up to the Maximum Time Slice Size.
- Optimize your networks so under no condition your frame time exceeds the audio buffer size or the maximum time slice size. You can monitor this precisely with the Perform CHOP.
- Put audio in a separate TouchDesigner process.
Parameters - Audio Device Out Page
active
- Turns the audio output on or off.
driver
- ⊞ - Select between default DirectSound/CoreAudio or ASIO drivers.
- DirectSound
default
- The default Windows audio driver (a.k.a. WDM) or macOS CoreAudio driver, depending on your OS.
- ASIO
asio
- Low-latency drivers which usually come from the hardware's manufacturer.
device
- A menu of available audio devices to output to. Selecting default sets the audio device to that which is selected in Windows Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices>Audio>Sound Playback.
errormissing
- The CHOP will error if the specified device is not found.
outputs
- When Driver is set to ASIO on Windows or CoreAudio on macOS, this parameter lets you pick which output channels to use.
bufferlength
- The length of the audio buffer in seconds. Audio output is delayed by this amount. For example, if the Buffer Length is 0.25 then the sound will occur 250ms = 0.25 seconds later than this CHOP received it (to keep the buffer full). If you hear crackling or popping in the audio output, try increasing this value.
adjustspeed
- This value controls how forcefully the output queue is modified when it grows too long or too short. A larger value recovers the queue size more quickly, but results in audible pitch changes.
volume
- 0 = mute, 1 = full volume.
pan
- 0 = left, 0.5 = centered, 1 = right.
clampoutput
- Clamps the output between -1 and 1 to avoid clipping and overdriving of the audio system.
- When True the audio channels are sent to each audio output such that no outputs are left silent. For example this allows a single channel to be output on two stereo outputs. (ASIO only).
cookalways
- Forces the CHOP to cook every frame. This should be checked on at all times when outputing audio. It can be turned off when the CHOP is not in use.
Parameters - Output 1 Page
When using DirectSound on Windows, outputs on this page and the following Output 2 page are for routing to an audio device's different speaker outputs. Not all devices will support all outputs.
When the Audio Device Out CHOP has multiple input channels, the channels are applied to the checked speaker outputs in order. The first input channel is output to the first speaker checked, the second input channel is output to the second speaker checked, and so on.
The following speaker outputs are found on this parameter page:
stereo
- Set to simple stereo left/right output mode.
frontleft
- Enable this output if available.
frontright
- Enable this output if available.
frontcenter
- Enable this output if available.
lowfrequency
- Enable this output if available.
backleft
- Enable this output if available.
backright
- Enable this output if available.
frontleftcenter
- Enable this output if available.
frontrightcenter
- Enable this output if available.
backcenter
- Enable this output if available.
Parameters - Output 2 Page
The following speaker outputs are found on this parameter page:
sideleft
- Enable this output if available.
sideright
- Enable this output if available.
topcenter
- Enable this output if available.
topfrontleft
- Enable this output if available.
topfrontcenter
- Enable this output if available.
topfrontright
- Enable this output if available.
topbackleft
- Enable this output if available.
topbackcenter
- Enable this output if available.
topbackright
- Enable this output if available.
Parameters - Common Page
timeslice
- Turning this on forces the channels to be "Time Sliced". A Time Slice is the time between the last cook frame and the current cook frame.
scope
- To determine which channels get affected, some CHOPs use a Scope string on the Common page. See Pattern Matching.
srselect
- ⊞ - Handle cases where multiple input CHOPs' sample rates are different. When Resampling occurs, the curves are interpolated according to the Interpolation Method Option, or "Linear" if the Interpolate Options are not available.
- Resample At First Input's Rate
first
- Use rate of first input to resample others.
- Resample At Maximum Rate
max
- Resample to the highest sample rate.
- Resample At Minimum Rate
min
- Resample to the lowest sample rate.
- Error If Rates Differ
err
- Doesn't accept conflicting sample rates.
exportmethod
- ⊞ - This will determine how to connect the CHOP channel to the parameter. Refer to the Export article for more information.
- DAT Table by Index
datindex
- Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the index of the channel in the CHOP.
- DAT Table by Name
datname
- Uses the docked DAT table and references the channel via the name of the channel in the CHOP.
- Channel Name is Path:Parameter
autoname
- The channel is the full destination of where to export to, such hasgeo1/transform1:tx
.
autoexportroot
- This path points to the root node where all of the paths that exporting by Channel Name is Path:Parameter are relative to.
exporttable
- The DAT used to hold the export information when using the DAT Table Export Methods (See above).
Operator Inputs
- Input 0: -
- Input 1: -
Info CHOP Channels
Extra Information for the Audio Device Out CHOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.
Specific Audio Device Out CHOP Info Channels
- queue_speed - The speed at which the output buffer is being played. Ideally it should not stray far from 1.0 (normal speed).
- queue_read_pos - The current read position of the queue buffer. When playing back normally it should be ramping between start and end.
- queue_write_pos - The current write position of the queue buffer. When playing back normally it should be ramping between start and end.
- queue_length - The total length of the audio output buffer, in seconds.
- queue_added - This value reflects the size of the audio segment last added to the output buffer.
Common CHOP Info Channels
- start - Start of the CHOP interval in samples.
- length - Number of samples in the CHOP.
- sample_rate - The samplerate of the channels in frames per second.
- num_channels - Number of channels in the CHOP.
- time_slice - 1 if CHOP is Time Slice enabled, 0 otherwise.
- export_sernum - A count of how often the export connections have been updated.
Common Operator Info Channels
- total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.
- cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.
- cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.
- cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.
- cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.
- cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.
- cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.
- warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.
- errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.
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