Stereo Tool

Introducing the Fidelity Maximizer. It's a variation of Maximizer with many of the tweaks added from my older preset: "The Fidelity Normalizer" (now depreciated) such as EQ tweaks, stereo delay, bandpass filter, noise gate, etc. It's similar to what I attempted to do with the Kicker only I believe this turned out much better. I've been able to get it sounding really good across all genres of music as well as songs that normally sound very "mono". The overall tone is fuller as well. It can maximize really quiet songs without dampening the already louder ones. Something my old preset cannot actually do as effectively.

I'm not into FM transmissions or anything so this is designed for everyday listening and since I listen to a very wide variety of music, it can work across all genres. The idea behind this preset is to ensure that you seldom have to adjust the volume between every song when some are too quiet while others far too loud. At the same time, I tried to avoid that "compressed" sounding audio you get when the lower frequencies cause the highs to drop (something VERY noticeable and especially annoying in both chip-tunes and bass heavy tracks).

I have also played with the frequency response in order to get some more clarity out of this preset. Hope you enjoy. I also tend to use earbuds and headphones more than conventional speakers so I guess I could say that this preset would be geared toward that kind of setup.

Changelog:
Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.5 (saved with v6.32):
- Added boosted deep Bass. After thorough testing, this seems to work well without introducing any negative side effects
- I now strongly recommend the non-stereo delay version over the other given the above change. It sounds better and in reality, the stereo delay is really only needed to diffuse the heavily mono tracks.
- STS files uploaded directly instead of using a .zip (now that the forums allow me to do this)

Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.4 (saved with v6.31):
- Disabled declipper (but kept settings in tact)
- Eased up on the Noise gate since it was sacrificing too much treble for little benefit.

Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.3 (saved with v6.31):
- Played around with the EQ some more. The output is less "Hollow" now with more mids bringing the music life. It also diffuses the lows during songs such as organ pieces which could clip at times.

Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.2 R2 (saved with v6.30):
- Very minor but worthwhile change: Reduce Post-amp to 0.89 (-1.00 dB) to avoid clipping during certain circumstances.

Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.2 (saved with v6.30):
- Added "No Stereo Delay Version"

Here is what I changed in Version 1.0.1 (saved with v6.30):
- Removed "Stereo Processing" as it hurt the audio quality in some songs (certain ones worse than others). It was left over from the original Maximizer and is not needed with Stereo Delay.

Time to update my presets to suit v6.30. No real settings change (except I did reduce the post amp to 0.89 instead of 1.00 to avoid rare clipping issues - Mostly when listening to piano heavy songs such as Minecraft's soundtrack). I have also created two versions of the preset that have Stereo delay on and off to suit all tastes. Personally, I like the effect for the reasons I listed in the original post. I will edit it and insert the updated presets now.

...and another update. This time, I enabled "Loudness" and set it to 2x. I noticed that some of the REALLY quiet tunes were not being boosted as much as they could be and since the idea behind this preset is to ensure you do not have to adjust the volume constantly, I figured an additional boost that only affected those songs would be nice. Already loud tunes will remain unchanged and like before, you won't here that awful "compressed" sound muffling your bass or high frequencies. I'll keep the old version up in case you don't feel that the extra boost is really necessary (of if certain songs in your collection clip under this new setting). I really wonder why classical music always seems to be recorded REALLY quiet.

EDIT: Lowered the loudness to 1.2x since 2x was causing clipping in certain types of songs.

Haven't updated this in a little while now. Found a couple ways to improve things without harming the overall audio quality (namely with the declipper and noise gate). You can see my changelog for full details. Haven't heard anything from anybody using my preset so I hope you are enjoying it.

I don't know about you but I LOVE deep bass. If you have speakers or headphones that are capable of it, you'll really enjoy this next update. I found I could play around with the frequency response some more to get a deeper boost which nicely compliments the separate bass boost feature Stereo Tool has. The Bandpass filter will ensure only "audible" low frequencies are used of course saving audio bandwidth in the process. Like all my changes, I test for clipping and didn't notice any negative artifacts introduced on all my test songs. In addition, I found a way to lessen the artifacts of the declipper on Square Waves. Naturally you can just shut it off altogether but I like it on for certain songs that weren't recorded properly.

Anyway, enjoy this update fellow deep bass fans!

Hi,

It's nice to follow along and see your different changes and experiments. I tried out this preset and immediately noticed the added boost in mid-range frequencies (had just switched from Riviera preset). Unfortunately the song that was playing at the moment "What you see is what you get" by the Dramatics was somehow getting clobbered by a lot of bass and mid-range pumping with this preset. It could of been due to the declipper or some such setting. That particular song has a lot of bass low end to begin with and something was magnifying the distortion. I think it sounded a little smoother with the "no stereo delay" version of the preset.

I am also listening thru an aac 48 kb/s stream which also introduces sonic challenges. Anyway, keep up the tweaking and I'll take another gander again sometime. Thanks for your contributions.

Who is the artist for "What you see is what you get" so I can listen to the song too and better understand what you are hearing. If it's the one from Britney Spears, then that song is actually very mid-heavy already so no wonder if was over powering. Anyway, I can better tell once I hear the song with and without the preset. Another thing to note, the stereo delay really shines when it comes to songs that are very mono to begin with at it expands them nicely. I also found it works well with stereo headphones. Not so much for surround headsets and speaker system.

Ack. Not even close to Britney.

The song is actually titled "Whatcha see is whatcha get" by the soul group "Dramatics". It's an early 1970's funky classic. Here's a fairly good sounding copy I see on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLv9VI2AnGQ.

I think the original of this version was a little distorted to begin with (like some of the mid 1960's Motown tunes).

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't "actually" think it was Britney Spears (your reaction wasn't unexpected to be honest lol) but since I didn't know the artist, I just picked the first song on the list under that title. Anyway, I reverted the kicker3 EQ settings while adding the other tweaks I made and that seemed to fix the excessive bass and mids (at least for me). I will upload my changes for you to try out. What the preset will do now is actually suppress the bass if it starts to get waaaaay too overbearing.

EDIT: Just make sure you don't try and boost the bass further with the EQ or you will get the opposite effect and all highs will be suppressed to make room for the added bass (which sounds REALLY bad). I found this happens even when I use my X-fi's Bass boost so I keep it off.

Yes, it's like when you turn one dial it affects all the others in some unknown way. My motto with processing is "less is better".