Stereo Tool

Im thinking of buying stereotool, and using it on a FM radio station.

I dont know much about FM, I work for radio stations but I work with the computers and everything thats before the processor/transmiter etc.
I ve read about stereotool doing a good sounding proccessing and also supporting FM stereo and RDS, so perhaps its a very nice option for a new radio station we are trying to start, with the lowest possible expenses.

I have some EMU 0404 cards that support 192khz, and also have balanced outputs with great sound. Will they be enough for RDS and stereo, without distorting the sound?
Explaining as simply as possible, I want to directly connect the computer to that device with the BNC input (transmitter, link, or whatever its called)

On the other stations I work, we use Omnia FM 4 processors, and they sound great on the radio (although I personally hate heavy compression and limiting, they really sound better compared to most other stations on the area)
Is there any way/preset to get that Omnia 4 sound with stereo tool? I could access the Omnia setup and see the values and DSP order if needed, but Im sure its pretty much a default preset with some minor or no tweaking at all.

Also what are the requirements for this? We usually use old P4 and similar computers for radios since playing music has very low requirements. I tried to test stereotool on one of those computers and it couldnt do it fast enough, it hast constant 100% cpu usage and was stuttering.
I suppose a newer cpu is need, and also there are some specific SSE requirements? Also I would prefere the usage would be less than 50% per core, being stuck at high cpu usage Is not something I want for 24/7 computers.

I suppose you are Greek, so you can PM me for some more help I can give you.

For all your questions above, there are many people who can help you here.

Ok, let me make a start.

If you have a relatively fast (2.4 GHz +) Pentium 4 you *might* be able to get it running fast enough but only if you take shortcuts which reduce the audio quality.

But I would advice you to buy something a lot faster. Future versions will almost definitely use more CPU power (and have more options as well). Just make sure you get an Intel CPU if possible - until now Stereo Tool runs more efficient on Intel's than on AMD's.

If by Omnia 4 you mean the predecessor of the Omnia 6, be prepared to be blown away - Stereo Tool should sound much better than that (cleaner, more punchy, louder). At least if you use the BETA version on the download page. The Omnia 6 is already 11 years old, and this one is even older! Technology has progressed a lot since then! Unfortunately the Stereo Tool settings are kinda non-default (when I started working on it I didn't know anything about audio processing, and most sliders and names differ from those in hardware boxes). I will start moving towards the 'standard' interface soon. But for now it will be difficult to copy settings - except by listening to it and attempting to adjust it to do the same.

I ll buy a new Intel CPU based system for this purpose. Whats the cheapest currently on the market Intel CPU I could use without compromising the audio quality, and leaving enough resources free to run my music playing program?

I do mean the predecessor of Omnia 6. I know its relatively old, but still sounds better than most other radios on my town, and from what I ve seen its pretty easy to configure, almost works out of the box.

minimum:
- DualCore or Core2duo Intel CPU E5x0 or E6x00 or E7x00, or best one from series, E8x00.
- Good Motherboard with chipset P3x or P4x or G4x.. with atleast 2 free PCI slosts (i recommend higher models from ASUS)
- 2x1 GB Memory (no need for more!) ddr2 or ddr3 depend on Motherboard.
- Silent graphics
- Soundcard: Marian Trace Alpha or pro, or ESI Juli@ (with marian you will not need to use calibration - IF transmitter is OK!)
- OS: WindowsXP SP2 or SP3 32bit! (i am using stripped XP SP2 pro for all my 24/7 PCs - about 150MB instalation)

recommended:
- CPU i5
- ASUS appropriate higer model for CPU - free PCI slots
- 2x1 GB memory (or 2x2GB only if it's faster - it's not about amount)
- OS: WindowsXP SP2 or SP3 32bit!
- SSD cheapest you find. (there is some trick to make SSD to work good with XP. - ask if needed)
- Silent graphics
- Soundcard: Marian Trace Alpha or Pro or, ESI Juli@ (with marian you will not need to use calibration - IF transmitter is OK!)

If you want to use PC not only for processinng, then go for more memory and - Larger HDD will be good case2