Stereo Tool

Hans: with the Beta 15, I have noticed in my AMD Dual core cpu, consuming an unbalanced in the cores at 75% and the other 45%. This had already happened in other version in the past.
good job and great sound in this beta!

_________________
by GAP
"Less is More" (Bob Katz)

Maybe next beta will be better... more optimizations...

Surely

_________________
by GAP
"Less is More" (Bob Katz)

Changes in this version:
Some performance optimizations.
Behavior slightly changed (very loud highs are slightly louder, and drops are probably slightly less!)

Haven't tested the CPU load but it must be lower than the previous version - so only a few % higher than released version 6.31.

Stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 32-016.exe
DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 32-016.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 32-016.dll
Cmd: NOT AVAILABLE

Older changes:
- Bass sensitivity clipping level drop: If there are both mids and highs, the drop is a bit less strong than before
- Bass sensitivity clipping level drop: Determining more precisely when the clip is needed. So instead of dropping the bass the whole 4096-samples block, it's now only dropped at the locations of this block where there really are mid/high freqs
- Bug reported by Phoenix ( viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4235 ) should be fixed.
- BS412 also needs a max deviation (+/- 75 kHz) display --> Added
- BS412 sometimes caused drops of upto 2.5 dB. This is preset dependent. --> Adding a slider with which you can specify the amount of headroom; by lowering the output level by 0.05 dB the margin for error is already increased by 50% which seems sufficient. Test if adjustment adjust compressors properly.
- Also adding a BS412 slider with which the max deviation can be lowered; this way you can create a denser sound (apparently many commercial stations like that even though they don't gain any loudness) and it protects against spikes when the sound card or path to the transmitter isn't perfect (reason: Many current processors usually clip the signal at around +/- 50 kHz instead of 75, so in many cases the path to the transmitter doesn't have to be perfect). (Partially done, to be added: BS412 must take clipping into account; clipping level adjustment for pilot/rds).
- Something is broken in latency 512.
- Different up speeds for louder end result
- Sound card adjustment for low freqs needed (that was on my todo list anyway, but I'm moving it to the top now).
- Slightly changed sensitivity behavior (les steep drops and rises of bass). Not sure if this is the best possible solution: Alternative might be to let the bass drops start and end INSIDE the area where loud bass is present, or do the same as now but limit the maximum change speed.
- Made tilt configuration a bit easier (less steep changes at the extremes)
- 2nd RC slider is saved now
- Added displays so you can see what is being sent out to the sound card (including calibrations)
- Changed clipper distortion masking filter, this version should have slightly less distortion than the previous one but almost the same amount of highs.
- Added 2 extra sliders to control the distortion masking. Increasing the 1st or decreasing the 2nd increases the amount of highs. The goal is to find a combination of values which allows the highs to pass without adding (too much) distortion.
2nd slider determines how fast something is determined to be a tone instead of hiss - for tones I don't allow more distortion than before. First slider multiplies the calculated effect (that is, it multiplies the allowed amount of distortion, which doesn't mean that it will actually be used or lead to louder highs).
- Found and fixed several bugs in the clipper (hole punching by loud highs should be reduced).
- Allowing some extra very brief distortion to reduce hole punching by loud highs.
- Improved behavior of Highs Priority to avoid volume drops.
- Improved de-esser


Planned:
- Check sensitivity


Note: High frequency square waves are NOT good for testing. Use square for low freqs, normal for high (above approx. 100-200 Hz).

Sounding good Hans. Just put latest beta 16 on air (FM) upgrading from 6.31. Difference is sizable, particularly on bottom end.

I've always found our old 8400 and also BBP pleasingly more tonally consistent track to track than ST in terms of achieving a consistent signature sound. They just seemed better at tonal re-balancing, auto eq'ing just as needed on each different track for our particular processing aims. Whereas I can get ST sounding great on one track, its tonal balance is not always so great for the next.

I'd always assumed that difference was primary due to the multiband compressor design in ST, and that would change with your pending re-design - and I assume it will significantly. But I find it interesting that these changes to the loudness/clipper section you've made with this series of betas seem to be also having a notable positive effect in this area, with ST sounding smoother and simply more consistent now on FM than it did. With the pending multiband redesign - can't wait. But that current ST clipper/loudness section is just class leading stuff on FM, and A/B 'ing to BBP and the 8400, it's a clear stand out. Cheers AJ.

And you're right.

How many call it, "signature sound" is generated in MB and part of it in AGC (depend on design).
What's done now in ST is fixed volume drops caused by highs (sometimes 4dB less) and also improved highs. That easily sounds like overall sound is much more consistent, which is not surprise, since volume drop mostly occured on mids.

Well it's both true. The clipper had some problems which caused it to be bad at handling loud highs, and the multiband section definitely doesn't help there.

Having said that, solving it in Multiband would have reduced - but not completely fixed - the problem, and would have led to a much lower level of highs. In the end, for good results, every filter counts.


New build coming up. Cleaned up the Loudness section (thanks for tip Bojcha) - and added de-esser slope (which seems to work very well, I get more highs but not more drops).

Changes in this version:
Cleaned up Loudness panel (removed some things that are no longer needed).
Added de-esser slope slider. Set it higher to reduce the de-esser effect for highs that are not very loud.

Haven't tested the CPU load but it must be lower than the previous version - so only a few % higher than released version 6.31.

Stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 32-017.exe
DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 32-017.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 32-017.dll
Cmd: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 32-017.exe

Older changes:
- Bass sensitivity clipping level drop: If there are both mids and highs, the drop is a bit less strong than before
- Bass sensitivity clipping level drop: Determining more precisely when the clip is needed. So instead of dropping the bass the whole 4096-samples block, it's now only dropped at the locations of this block where there really are mid/high freqs
- Bug reported by Phoenix ( viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4235 ) should be fixed.
- BS412 also needs a max deviation (+/- 75 kHz) display --> Added
- BS412 sometimes caused drops of upto 2.5 dB. This is preset dependent. --> Adding a slider with which you can specify the amount of headroom; by lowering the output level by 0.05 dB the margin for error is already increased by 50% which seems sufficient. Test if adjustment adjust compressors properly.
- Also adding a BS412 slider with which the max deviation can be lowered; this way you can create a denser sound (apparently many commercial stations like that even though they don't gain any loudness) and it protects against spikes when the sound card or path to the transmitter isn't perfect (reason: Many current processors usually clip the signal at around +/- 50 kHz instead of 75, so in many cases the path to the transmitter doesn't have to be perfect). (Partially done, to be added: BS412 must take clipping into account; clipping level adjustment for pilot/rds).
- Something is broken in latency 512.
- Different up speeds for louder end result
- Sound card adjustment for low freqs needed (that was on my todo list anyway, but I'm moving it to the top now).
- Slightly changed sensitivity behavior (les steep drops and rises of bass). Not sure if this is the best possible solution: Alternative might be to let the bass drops start and end INSIDE the area where loud bass is present, or do the same as now but limit the maximum change speed.
- Made tilt configuration a bit easier (less steep changes at the extremes)
- 2nd RC slider is saved now
- Added displays so you can see what is being sent out to the sound card (including calibrations)
- Changed clipper distortion masking filter, this version should have slightly less distortion than the previous one but almost the same amount of highs.
- Added 2 extra sliders to control the distortion masking. Increasing the 1st or decreasing the 2nd increases the amount of highs. The goal is to find a combination of values which allows the highs to pass without adding (too much) distortion.
2nd slider determines how fast something is determined to be a tone instead of hiss - for tones I don't allow more distortion than before. First slider multiplies the calculated effect (that is, it multiplies the allowed amount of distortion, which doesn't mean that it will actually be used or lead to louder highs).
- Found and fixed several bugs in the clipper (hole punching by loud highs should be reduced).
- Allowing some extra very brief distortion to reduce hole punching by loud highs.
- Improved behavior of Highs Priority to avoid volume drops.
- Improved de-esser
- Cleaned up Loudness panel (removed some things that are no longer needed).
- Added de-esser slope slider. Set it higher to reduce the de-esser effect for highs that are not very loud.


Planned:
- Check sensitivity


Note about tilt: High frequency square waves are NOT good for testing. Use square for low freqs, normal for high (above approx. 100-200 Hz).

Excellent versions these beta! Can't believe the amount of realism I hear. Vocal reverbs and highs are so pronounced and clean! Gheorghe Zamfir's 'The Lonely Shepherd' was an absolute pleasure to listen to. Crisp highs without any muffling by bass/mids whatsoever.

All this without any substantial changes in multi-band processor (specifying bands affected by vocals' protection).

I can only remotely imagine what ST would sound like after the newer implementation of multi-band and an expander. Way to go Hans!

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Using one of your own presets ?

(@ everyone - whenever you notice a remarkable change of the processing quality )
More detailed information about the settings/presets you use, please !