Stereo Tool

Version 3.21 is now available.

Two days ago I received an email from someone with links to a number of "challenging" sounds for FM audio processors - including recordings of processed sounds made with Optimod and Omnia processors.

Some tracks really sounded better (punchier, more powerful) on the Optimod and Omnia. So I started searching for the causes, and made some changes to the processing in Stereo Tool. With this new version I can configure it such that it sounds almost identical to the Optimod and Omnia recordings... Comments on the new sound (is it better?) are welcome!

(Most importantly: The Omnia and Optimod had stronger highs. To achieve similar highs I have improved the Final Pre-limiter and the Loudness filter. Also I had to lower the "down speed" of the bass frequencies, and increase the clipping values (from 1.5 to 3 or 4) to get punchier and more powerful bass sounds.)

Changes:
Improved Final Pre-limiter: Highs are preserved better for FM pre-emphasized sounds.
Improved Loudness filter processing: Better highs.
Increased maximum Loudness setting from 1.5 to 1.75. (Warning: Values above 1.5 cause some distortion for loud sounds. Only use it for sounds that don't often peak to the maximum volume.)
Changed presets for more punchy sound, Radio presets also for more punchy bass.
Bug fix: (De)selecting Low Latency no longer causes continuous static.

Wow. The snare kicks a lot better, and the bass drums are a lot punchier.

Also, the hi-hats sound better. Best is that I didn't have to tweak my aacPlus optimizing preset to accomodate for this. I am using 3.22, but I see the fixes were applied in this version. And here I was wondering how I could get things to "punch" better without increasing overall dynamic range -- now I know (upgrade to 3.21 or higher!)

My aacPlus preset is based off of the psycho acoustic models done by this: http://www.neuralaudio.com/NeuStar40.html

After your update, it sounds very close to a NeuStar 4.0 - scarily close. Thank you so much for this!

It sounds better all in all - but there is a trade-off on how the highs are being handled with the pre-limiter. That is the occasional "broken dish" or "dropped silverware" sounding cymbal, especially with hypercompressed source audio, which is certainly in line with Orban processors.

It definitely sounds like an Optimod! Great work!

Just out of curiosity, do you mind to share what some of the sounds were? I use "Don't Stand so Close to Me" by The Police because of the long, quiet intro to test processing for sharp drops and pumping, and "Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication" for fidelity and limiter slamming, due to the horrible hypercompression.

Oh, interesting.
Will have to test the NeuralAudio NeuStar4.0 Software.
The posted link is dead, therefore http://gates-harris-history.com/manuals ... 623001.pdf gives a good description.
Especially the "spectrum"- part is interesting...
There is an Audio processor for FM from IDT, the Digital Virtual processor.
It delivers great results using FFT, but will try to get this NeuStar4.0 Software to compare to the IDT...

@RobertSack: You know you are responding to an almost 7 year old post right?

Yes, but I found it intertesting, cause I never heard about this Software before...
And maybe others here knows this...