Stereo Tool

Hm no not really.....

I don't think though that there's an easy fix for that. Setting Volume Effect lower should help. I'm pretty sure that several other wideners will give a very similar behavior.

1. It uses 1 core for processing, and a 2nd one for all the processing parts that can be split into 2 cores. So one core should be very busy, the 2nd one would do about half of that.
2. It uses a separate thread (depending on how Windows schedules it, that's also another core) for the GUI.
3. You should be able to go to about 90-95% usage on the most used core. Unless - and that can happen depending on the CPU and OS version - the OS moves the most demanding thread around over multiple cores. I have seen that on some systems.

Thank you Hans. You made things clear... Because i couldn't run my cpu core more than 60%-65% without shutering....

But if i run one ST of stereo tool with affinity set to cores 1-2 and a second one on cores 3-4 i can get composite cliper running as well and core usage goes up to 98% (where i could not run it with only one ST open.).

So If you can put a button to select to run composite clipper on the other cores with the cost of latency that will enable a lot of 4 core systems run ST (with more latency of course).

EDIT: If it is easy of course to program something like that

Thank you very much for your time.
Kostas

_________________
Very proud user of Stereo Tool since 2010. Thanks Hans.

My radio station
http://amradio.ddns.net

I cannot completely remove this, but the effect is greatly reduced now.

BETA745-010 (RELEASE CANDIDATE 2):

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 45-010.exe
WINAMP DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 45-010.exe


CHANGES:
- Improved Peak Detection behavior: Now there must also be a peak in L-R to boost the level. This improves the Pink Floyd track that Brian posted.
- Made Volume effect slider available in Expert mode.


OLDER:
- Check CPU load issue since merging HQ mode code in. -> REMOVED EXTRA THREAD,
- Fix new method Attack (first kick is too soft; amount_of_attack / attenuation_level is too low because attenuation_level is too high at the start of compression).
- Clean up stuff from stereo widener that's no longer used (2 detection algorithms etc.).
- Update Ibiza preset
- Think of a better name (ACR Stereo: Attack Controlled Repeat stereo; E.D.L. Stereo - Eighties Delayed Limited; PEDL Stereo - Punchy Eighties Delayed Limited; DWEL - Delayed Wide Eighties Limited; PEDRL - Punchy Eighties Delayed Repeat Limited stereo; DREL; DRL; LDR; ...). Keep ACR?
- High input level appears to activate limiter -> NO.
Most important change: New attack detection mechanism in stereo widener that - I think - more accurately controls L-R volume boosts.
Before, I used 2 compressors with different release speeds and then calculated the difference in level between the two; when both hit the attack they would go the the same level (maximum stereo increment), then it would drop again. But, this tended to cause 'jumps' in level, and in audio without big volume differences the amount of stereo increment would be high because both would stabilize at approximately the same level. Which is bad: The idea is to boost transients more than constant tones.

The new version detects when attack happens and normalizes that to match the amount of attack with the amount of compression. A completely separate release is used to smoothe the effect. The L-R part of constant tones is hardly boosted at all anymore. Also there are far less jumps in the volume, overall it sounds far more stable.

Note: Some default values are changed for a better sound with this new detection mechanism!

- Implemented new transient detection method. (Move the 'Method' slider from 0 to 1; 1 gives the new behavior, 0 the old). To test, slide between method 0 (old) and 1 (new) with the new Method slider. I'm planning to remove method 0.
- Add all stereo types on/off switches in main Stereo panel.
- Add ACR Stereo indicator in main panel
- "Hide" Extreme Tweaker mode
- Make Punch behavior less complex!! Remove settings that aren't needed.
- Optimize stereo widener code (remove pow's)
- Add Bojcha's Ibiza preset
- Change version number to 7.50
- Look into amateur/HAM VST plugin settings (email Dave) WAITING FOR FEEDBACK

- Fixed 2 bugs in jump detection. Until now some spikes could be 'missed', and the same audio could come out differently each time you played it, that is no longer the case. Also adjusted some default settings and ranges.

This is how it works:
- We have an attack and release, which are used to follow the peak levels.
- Volume: There's a slower release ("relative volume release"). The difference in level (the version with slower release gets equal during attack, but drops down more slowly) is used to adjust the volume. If you set Volume effect higher this has more effect and you can clearly hear what it does. 100% is roughly equal to the Spartacus plugin.
- Adjustment speed: Speedup drop speed controls how quickly after an attack has occurred (according to main attack/release) the speedup stops again. Relative speedup controls how much effect this has. Set to 0 to turn off.

Both can be best adjusted when using Difference mode.

The Volume effect can be heard best when you set Volume effect to 100%. If needed set Limit below and Stop above to their maximum values.
The adjustment speed can best be heard when you set Volume effect to 0%, Limit below and Stop above at their default values (or lower), and L-R level boost to 300%. Then find tracks with punchy sounds and you can hear what happens when you change the Speedup drop and Relative speedup sliders.
- New jump detection. Now working in Spartacus-style, but without certain bad things in Spartacus (if you send in audio at a diffe
rent level the amount of stereo widening in Spartacus varies greatly, which is bad).
- Added L+R loudness jump detection - on L+R loudness jumps we can adjust the L-R level at a MUCH higher speed without causing noticeable effects. Which helps to create a much more constant stereo image.

This is a bit difficult to set up (default settings MIGHT be ok, but better settings might be possible); I might try to simplify it later or even remove parts of it completely.

Here's what I did:
- There's a new panel for Punch Detection
- It contains an attack and release setting which behave as a normal (extremely simple) attack and release on the signal.
- The next thing that happens is that the amount of attack that occurs is added up, and reduced again. The reduction speed is set by Peak Detection Drop.
- Relative Speedup determines how much faster all the settings under Response Speeds (except Peak Follow) are working relative to the value found in the previous step (Peak Detection with Drop.).
- This would be completely impossible to configure. But the next two sliders will help here. If you set Volume effect strength to 100%, stereo enhancement will only occur at a Punch peak. Volume effect can be used to adjust the relative level (compared to the Peak Detection level). Note: With a slow Peak Detection Drop speed this can be used to replicate the effect of the Spartacus VST plugin, which in turn was made to replicate a StereoMaxx. I would *not* advice very high levels here (values around 30-50% work pretty well though).

I think this description is probably unclear, but just take this from it:
- If you set Volume Effect to 100% and enable Difference mode, you'll hear that L-R is only widened after an L+R kick. What you need to know is that the speed at which settings are adjusted is relative to the output level with these settings. When there's silence you get the behavior of the previous releases (you also get that when you set Relative Speedup to 0).


- Added Balance (for input sound card)
- Added gate to stereo delay
- Added extra L-R vs L+R detection with different attack/release timings, actions are now taken based on the minimum of these two.
- Fixed lowpass filter slope and added option to set the level above the maximum lowpass frequency.
- Highpass and lowpass freqs are now locked (you cannot set the 2nd below the 1st.
- Changed ranges and default settings.
- Added settings to control limiter response speed.
- Changed default speed settings to get a much more constant sound level without jumping up and down
- Highpass and lowpass (!) filter added
- Added option to also limit the input stereo level.
- Stereo Delay now also visible in other than 'Extreme Tweaker' mode
- Stereo Delay limiter added. Also in case of existing extreme stereo it is switched off completely.
- Stereo Delay now also works with 0 delay (behaves more like Stereo Boost).
- Stereo Delay does not boost bass below 150 Hz, with a slope going up to 300 Hz.
- Natural Dynamics worked slightly different in version 7.43 and 7.44, and it turns out that it sounded worse (the bass is boosted much longer, causing excessive bass). Sound of version 7.42 is restored.
- New stereo widener added, based on techniques used in some famous stereo wideners since the 1980's. For now (I will change this) only available in Extreme Tweakers mode. See below.

TODO:
- Check nelson c's 7.44 problem (Juli@ driver issue?) (TEST IS RUNNING IN MY OFFICE - unable to reproduce so far)
- Loading/Saving stereo Enabled settings fails due to PCOPY
- Check Bojcha's Ibiza preset band 3/4 gate behavior (doesn't work) - big change, moved to next version
- Fix Mac VST crash on close in Might be fixed, awaiting feedback...


TODO LATER (improvements, version 7.51?)
- Gating in MB does not work when using Continuous Release. Maybe also a hard gate?
- Natural Dynamics must do nothing in already dynamic tracks, such as Abba - Gimme Gimme Gimme (original version).
- AGC must use more bands, in a smarter way than now. Not just a different crossover behavior but also different linking etc.
- Clipper protection must be checked again with current knowledge, to make more punchy bass kicks. See also these images: http://i.imgur.com/42fKt7v.png , http://i.imgur.com/8HkC6gu.png .

I think that AGC is good for now . Will it be measure in db/s later ?

I think that not AGC but MB must have ability to measure in db/s too, not to extend AGC bands. MB have enough bands , just make them to work like AGC in a different switch - like Old and new MB . When new MB is OFF , old one is ON and may be vise versa.

Hello,
Perhaps, when you´re working on the AGC again, you can improve ist behavior like i described in my old post in the wish list.
Ratio control, Jump-dependent Timing...
Regards,
Robert

I'd say the whole clipper system needs to be redesigned cause what you have running now tends to get really dirty really fast.
I think you should separate the bass clipper from the advanced clipper section and and also make a multiband clipper (a proper one). This way you'll be able to get louder and cleaner without putting to much strain on the final clipper.

You actually mean "limiter"?

Just ran a quick test using a modified J-type preset (thanks Bojcha!).

Using Beta 10, I seem to get a crash when changing the ASIO buffer size on the FM output. Strange. Even with the restart on crash enabled, it doesn't seem to recover. I haven't got anything in the c:\Temp directory either...

I will send some data to you via pm Hans, maybe that will help to identify the issue.