Stereo Tool

Hi all,

It has taken some time but here's a new beta. No real processing changes, just some added features and bug fixes. Most importantly, there's now a handler for exceptions that were not caught before (which could be caused by things such as VLC, bad sound card drivers) - it can now log what happened and automatically restart Stereo Tool. And, you can now run Stereo Tool as a service!

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 15-003.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 15-003.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 15-003.dll
Windows 64 bit:
Windows stand alone 64: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 15-003.exe
VST 64: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 15-003.dll

CHANGES:
- SST: Preset list was empty on first start
- SST: Multiple MicroMPX output IP addresses and ports CN.
- SST: Launch browser automatically on first start.
- SST: Improved startup screen.
- SST: Currently active presets highlighted
- SST: Prepared for longer list of MicroMPX IP/ports (partially there)
- SST: Clicking on meters in top bar takes you to the page directly
- SST: Top bar meter that corresponds with active screen is highlighted.
- MicroMPX decoder: Shows more startup info and waits for pressing ENTER at end (since it's command line, better if someone clicks on it)
- MicroMPX decoder: Improved handling of out-of-order and lost packets.
- Run as a service added to stand alone version, including different crash restart behavior (just closes if service)
- Catch crashes (should include VLC crashes!)
- Added crash module to error message on crash - often it's a driver.
- Moved reading RDS from file to a separate thread, should avoid hiccups when reading from network drives.
- Bug fix: FM test tones were broken when using Ignore high frequencies (introduced in 8.12).
- Bug fix: VST plugin no longer cuts off the start of songs (bug introduced in 8.14)
- Bug fix: UECP port was always used (even if FM disabled).
- Bug fix: Potential bug in the non-ASIO sound card code that could cause crashes depending on some compiler optimizations (it never caused any problems. But it could!).
- Rewrote error logging code (todo: log to the proper directory).
- Improved something in the compressors to avoid a possible crackle when used in multiband mode with steep filters. Doesn't seem to actually happen though.
- ControlsPanel Destruct() not called when quickly stopping service - Never mind (cannot happen normally, the service version never starts ControlsPanel, test code only)
- Crash in 8.14 DSP - only 1 report so far, without any further info, ignoring for now.

TODO:
- SST: Make IP/PORT changeable without web gui
- Hovering over tray icon now shows version number
- CPU load of I/O and processing framework reduced.
- Run as a service broken
- Storing settings fails!!!
- Import ST settings in SST
- SST: Disable 'MULTICORE' for latency 128, maybe also 256. (What about LQLL?)
- SST: Multiple MicroMPX output IP addresses and ports in web GUI!!!
- SST: Add built-in help
- MicroMPX: Improve pilot merge after drop when using slightly wrong frequency. (How important is this?)
- MicroMPX: Buffer underruns seen on ARM version, not sure why.
- MicroMPX: Check Stokkemask compliance on drops
- MicroMPX: People are also asking for Linux versions. How annoying is wrapping going to be?
- Shane's Lynx card analysis.
- Lower I/O CPU load
- Matt Levin: I was noticing the veil jumping around all over the place last night and remembered the fix was to turn the dehummer on and analyze the audio with silence and then leave it on and it fixed it and sure enough that was the case still
- Continue with AA Ratio, ARS Mode, Max Ratio, check which are needed and adjust GUI to make everything fit again.
- Check if FEEDBACK^2 needs to be added again anyway, Edwin van der Plank said it should...
- Add buffer underrun warning - auto detect lowest possible latency??
- Maybe add common logging?
- "Stuck" 1 dB difference multiband compressor mode before AGC
- Weird volume issue - Doesn't reproduce anymore. I had a few times that I selected a preset, and suddenly the volume would be too loud so it would sound really bad due to horrible clipping. I also saw a NAN warning on screen when that happened. Haven't been able to reproduce it since, it could be something that has been here for years and almost nevre happens... but I'm not certain if that's the case.
- Matt Levin: Annoying crackle in MB band 1 with higher lowpass filter frequency in Sound settings. Only seen on 1 test system, probably a sound card issue. Although it's still weird that he says it doesn't happen in 8.00. Ignoring this unless there's more info coming.
- SST: Change something with saving presets/loading presets so you can't accidentally load sound card settings etc. (DANGEROUS, can take you off the air!) "In a processing preset menu, you probably should only load processing files. Other omnia's have separate I/O presets. EVERYTHING is dangerous. HIDE it when in PROCESSING/CLEANUP. Save and recall system stuff separately?"
- SST: Skype call with Jim about names.
- SST: Help with ? in top menu which makes things clickable.

You have a recommended command line for launching ST as a service? SC or NSSM?

Ah, sorry. Use -h or --help or -? to get the options. That will show you this:

Service Manager by Leif Claesson

ThimeoStereoTool Service: radio_tool_SA.exe 8.14

Service Name:                                 radio_tool_SA
To install:                                   radio_tool_SA.exe -i
To install with auto start:                   radio_tool_SA.exe -i -run
To uninstall:                                 radio_tool_SA.exe -u

To start service:                             net start radio_tool_sa

To run as-if service from command line:       radio_tool_SA.exe run
To run with GUI (normally) from command line: radio_tool_SA.exe

Press any key to continue

Note: You should first move your settings file from C:\Users\<username> to C:\ProgramData . If you install Stereo Tool on a new pc from now on, it will automatically store its settings there.

Thanks, Hans!

Running Windows 10 64bit. Installing the service worked, but when I try to run it I get:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Stereo Tool>net start stereotool
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.


Stereotool -run works.

I moved the ini file to C:\ProgramData like you said. GUI version works too.

@bhelbush: are you running the command window in admin mode? I googled a bit and this error seems to be related to not being admin.

That was the problem. My user has admin rights but I need to launch the command prompt with admin rights. But now Stereo Tool launches and I hear audio, but it times out and stops.

Error 2186. The service is not responding to the control function.

I'm going to test on another machine later today.

Tested on a Windows 7 Pro 64 machine. Same results. Tried to start the service from the GUI. Same thing. Error is 1053 in GUI.

Anybody have this working? Let me know if I can send you logs, Hans. Or help in any way.

Confirmed. The service worked before but it's somehow broken now. It looks like it doesn't report that it's started or something like that (audio does run, for a while). Will check.

8.15 BETA005:

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 15-005.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 15-005.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 15-005.dll
Windows 64 bit:
Windows stand alone 64: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 15-005.exe
VST 64: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 15-005.dll

CHANGES:
- CPU load of I/O and processing framework reduced.
- Run as a service was broken in previous beta, fixed
- Hovering over tray icon now shows version number
- SST: Make IP/PORT changable without web gui
- SST: Settings were stored under stereo_tool.ini instead of OmniaSST.ini
- SST: Added importing Stereo Tool presets
- MicroMPX: Buffer underruns seen on ARM version, caused by logging/tracing library.
- Matt Levin: Annoying crackle in MB band 1 with higher lowpass filter frequency in Sound settings. Only seen on 1 test system, probably a sound card issue. Although it's still weird that he says it doesn't happen in 8.00. Ignoring this unless there's more info coming.

OLD CHANGES:
- SST: Preset list was empty on first start
- SST: Multiple MicroMPX output IP addresses and ports CN.
- SST: Launch browser automatically on first start.
- SST: Improved startup screen.
- SST: Currently active presets highlighted
- SST: Prepared for longer list of MicroMPX IP/ports (partially there)
- SST: Clicking on meters in top bar takes you to the page directly
- SST: Top bar meter that corresponds with active screen is highlighted.
- MicroMPX decoder: Shows more startup info and waits for pressing ENTER at end (since it's command line, better if someone clicks on it)
- MicroMPX decoder: Improved handling of out-of-order and lost packets.
- Run as a service added to stand alone version, including different crash restart behavior (just closes if service)
- Catch crashes (should include VLC crashes!)
- Added crash module to error message on crash - often it's a driver.
- Moved reading RDS from file to a separate thread, should avoid hiccups when reading from network drives.
- Bug fix: FM test tones were broken when using Ignore high frequencies (introduced in 8.12).
- Bug fix: VST plugin no longer cuts off the start of songs (bug introduced in 8.14)
- Bug fix: UECP port was always used (even if FM disabled).
- Bug fix: Potential bug in the non-ASIO sound card code that could cause crashes depending on some compiler optimizations (it never caused any problems. But it could!).
- Rewrote error logging code (todo: log to the proper directory).
- Improved something in the compressors to avoid a possible crackle when used in multiband mode with steep filters. Doesn't seem to actually happen though.
- ControlsPanel Destruct() not called when quickly stopping service - Never mind (cannot happen normally, the service version never starts ControlsPanel, test code only)
- Crash in 8.14 DSP - only 1 report so far, without any further info, ignoring for now.

TODO:
- Crash reported by Camclone
- SST: Skype call with Jim about names.
- SST: Disable 'MULTICORE' for latency 128, maybe also 256. (What about LQLL?)
- SST: Multiple MicroMPX output IP addresses and ports in web GUI!!!
- SST: Add built-in help
- MicroMPX: Improve pilot merge after drop when using slightly wrong frequency. (How important is this?)
- MicroMPX: Check Stokkemask compliance on drops
- Shane's Lynx card analysis.
- Matt Levin: I was noticing the veil jumping around all over the place last night and remembered the fix was to turn the dehummer on and analyze the audio with silence and then leave it on and it fixed it and sure enough that was the case still
- Continue with AA Ratio, ARS Mode, Max Ratio, check which are needed and adjust GUI to make everything fit again.
- Check if FEEDBACK^2 needs to be added again anyway, Edwin van der Plank said it should...
- Add buffer underrun warning - auto detect lowest possible latency??
- Maybe add common logging?
- "Stuck" 1 dB difference multiband compressor mode before AGC
- Weird volume issue - Doesn't reproduce anymore. I had a few times that I selected a preset, and suddenly the volume would be too loud so it would sound really bad due to horrible clipping. I also saw a NAN warning on screen when that happened. Haven't been able to reproduce it since, it could be something that has been here for years and almost nevre happens... but I'm not certain if that's the case.
- SST: Change something with saving presets/loading presets so you can't accidentally load sound card settings etc. (DANGEROUS, can take you off the air!) "In a processing preset menu, you probably should only load processing files. Other omnia's have separate I/O presets. EVERYTHING is dangerous. HIDE it when in PROCESSING/CLEANUP. Save and recall system stuff separately?"
- SST: Help with ? in top menu which makes things clickable.