| Stereo Tool https://forums.stereotool.com/ |
|
| Winamp plugin sounds too harsh https://forums.stereotool.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15702 |
Page 1 of 2 |
| Author: | \_/ [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Since again many years has passed and this bug still isn't fixed here's a remainder (preemphasis always on or something like that; don't really remember what hans said). It's nuts that a (broken) winamp plugin is still offered with every new version but people need to use a third party vst to winamp bridge to have proper sound with the ST vst plugin then instead (though the bridge doesn't handle the vst GUI and presets correctly). So there's no good solution for winamp dsp hosts. That's a lot of completely unnecessary hassle. Please fix it hans! |
|
| Author: | hvz [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 12:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Which bug is this? I always test with the DSP version, and it works fine here. Pre-emphasis always on???? |
|
| Author: | \_/ [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
I don't remember exactly what you said back then. It's just about the DSP version sounding much, much harsher/metallic/less warm than any other ST version. Like having a strong amount of highs enhancement/harmonics added all the time. You knew about that and said you wanted to fix that at a later time when revisiting the whole sound card code because you didn't wanted to touch the old winamp related code at that time. However that never happened. |
|
| Author: | hvz [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Uhm, the only thing with pre-emphasis is that IF you enable FM Transmitter AND pre-emphasis AND pre-emphasize output, and don't select an FM output sound card, that you get a brighter (pre-emphasized) output back to Winamp. Which may or may not be what you want. However that's easy enough to avoid - don't enable all those settings if you're not outputting anything to an FM sound card. The only issue here is that selecting 'Direct sound card access' changes what gets sent to Winamp which is a bit odd. But again, this is a fringe situation that shouldn't affect normal usage. |
|
| Author: | \_/ [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:38 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Sorry for getting you on a completely wrong path by mentioning the words soundcard and emphasis, my bad. This is not about ST processing/settings at all. I'm quite sure e.g. both the VST and the DSP will process the audio itself just fine. However it's about the interaction between the ST DSP and the host only, i.e. your DSP input or output code. As said above all versions except DSP sound fine. Even using the VST with a third party DPS bridge is just fine. So why cannot ST DSP do that, too? I don't know what additional 'effect' you apply before or after the DSP and why. Maybe you thought that winamp sounded to dull and always applied some 'enhancement'? Or input/output conversion is handled improper? Doing some improper (nonlinear?) filtering that causes harshness? And you did acknowledge this problem in the past but I cannot easily find the post (word winamp is to common). I definitely hope this'll be fixed at some point. Btw if you don't have the time to look into this I could do that myself. Since this is only about the DSP to host interface code and not the ST processing code are you willing to share that? |
|
| Author: | hvz [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 3:02 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
The only thing that happens in the output to the host is rounding to ints (depending on the input format, the output format has to be identical to the input format), with dithering. No enhancements or anything else. So unless you're hearing the dithering (which only affects the last bit), the sound should be the same. Which player are you using? I've seen in the past that the volume control of Winamp just cuts off bits without dithering, that can sound really nasty. |
|
| Author: | hvz [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 3:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
If I turn all processing off and feed a file through the DSP plugin, the output is identical to the input. If that's not the case on your end, then your DSP host is broken, not the plugin. |
|
| Author: | \_/ [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:07 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Thanks for testing. Got an idea: There's one difference when using the VST to DSP bridge: It only accepts the one format it's configured to. So I needed to convert all other formats beforehand. With ST DSP I never did that but fed it whatever format it was without ever caring where and how the conversion took place. Checking now if that could be the problem... |
|
| Author: | hvz [ Tue Apr 04, 2017 6:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Ow. If the program is converting it itself it WILL sound horrible and metallic if the resampler is bad. Stereo Tool can handle any sample rate, BUT MANY DSP PLUGINS DON'T. So there are programs that auto-convert everything when you use a DSP plugin. |
|
| Author: | \_/ [ Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:23 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Winamp plugin sounds too harsh |
Yeah, this has been finally fixed with version 8.31! Very happy and no bleeding ears anymore.  Whatever you did hans, maybe by accident, don't ever change it again! Highs are now soft and pleasing, no harshness anymore. Maybe it was the sound cards opened twice thing but who cares. And it only took a few years. 
|
|
| Page 1 of 2 | All times are UTC+02:00 |
| Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited https://www.phpbb.com/ |
|