Software effect processor

A software effect processor is a computer program that alters the sound from a digital source through audio signal processing in real time.

The larger the buffer is, the more time it takes to play the audio data sent for playback.

Every system has certain limitations - too small buffers involving negligible latencies cannot be smoothly processed by computer, so the reasonable size starts at about 32 samples.

The default Windows drivers are not optimized for low latency effect processing.

All the Mac compatible hardware uses CoreAudio drivers, so the software effects processors can work with small latency and good performance.