Stereo Tool

Stereo Tool 10.10 is released!

Stereo Tool 10.10 is a massive change compared to the previously released version, 9.92. Should you encounter any issues after installing version 10.10, you can always revert to 9.92 - but please notify us of any issues that you encounter!

You can download it here: https://www.thimeo.com/stereo-tool/download/

Changes:

• All Stereo Tool-based products migrated to new user interface.
• New user interface and web interface are completely reorganized.
• New GUI: Added display for active sample rate in plugins.
• New GUI: Added Persistent display of CPU, buffer fillings.
• New GUI has been greatly improved since the (very early) 10.00 release in ST-Enterprise. Too many changes to list here.
• New GUI: Added metering overview screen.
• All Stereo Tool-based products migrated to new I/O layer. The BIMP can now be used in Stereo Tool DSP and VST plugin versions!
• New I/O framework: Increased target buffer filling for synchronization by 1 block, making it identical to the old framework, and more logical.
• New I/O framework: Add 1 extra block to MME/Wasapi/Kernel Streaming based on buffer size, to prevent almost certain hiccups at buffer size 0.
• New I/O framework: Enabled resampling in new I/O mode when Auto is selected even if buffers are very small.
• New I/O framework: Add Jack support, dynamically loaded only if it is installed.
• New I/O framework: Bug fix: If the buffer ended up in the area where it could be either too full or empty, it could get stuck there.
• New I/O framework: Bug fix: Possible crash on exit when sound card was unresponsive.
• New I/O framework: Lots other of fixes, additions and improvements since the preliminary version 10.00.
• Web interface: Reduced startup data usage from around 3 MB to 310 kB.
• User logins enabled for both native and web interface for Enterprise, STX, ABE and MicroMPX builds.
• User logins: Added View-only rights.
• User logins: Loading and resetting parameters now ignores parameters that you don't have access to; load for editable, save for visible.
• User logins: Export of saved presets is now filtered as well for login rights (not visible = removed from export).
• User logins: Preset selection links in web interface are filtered for access rights.
• Added simple password protection for non-Enterprise/STXtreme builds. Incompatibile with old password mechanism, after updating old password will be gone.
• RDS: UECP: Added support for group 0x30 TMC encoding as used by Broadcaster Traffic Consortium (BTC) in the US/Canada (waiting for certification).
• RDS: UECP: Added support for ClockTime messages (time zone, clock offset, turn on/off).
• RDS: UECP: Added option to block access to setting any text fields (PS, RT, PTYN) to protect against hackers on open ports used for among others TMC data.
• RDS: Changed RT+ order based on advise from ChatGPT, might improve handling of updates on some receivers.
• RDS: Restored old RadioText A/B behavior for non-UECP inputs to how it worked before version 9.92/10.00; new behavior was causing issues on some receivers.
• RDS: Move ECC en LCC from Advanced RDS to normal RDS.
• RDS live data visible in web interface.
• Web interface: Cursor keys moved both slider and whole page.
• Some password protected settings could still be changed from the web interface, fixed.
• Web interface: Improved screen reader support, preset manager still to be finalized.
• Web interface: Removed unnecessary parametric EQ communication to web interface (was updating the graphs on each redraw).
• Web interface: Increased maximum whitelist size (from 1024 to 8192 characters).
• Web interface: Password page does no longer ask to store passwords for other users.
• Web interface: Lots of smaller improvements.
• Web interface: Added support to send it through a proxy (add /stereotool/ in the URL at the end of or after the proxy link).
• Settings are now automatically saved if you don't touch the native or web interface or STXtreme front panel for some time.
• Memory usage optimized reduced a lot (hundreds of MB's in some versions).
• Memory usage: LQLL mode in Winamp and VST plugins only instantiated when needed.
• Memory usage: Optimized for cache behavior (small effect, 1% better performance).
• Changed how plugins access their host information.
• Dante: Show IP address in GUI.
• Updated Raspberry Pi SD card image to be nearly read-only. (todo: post this)
• Bass EQ: Add go-to level for silence.
• Presets: Split RDS from other FM settings, so they can be loaded and saved separately.
• Phase inversion detection: Added threshold setting to make it more sensitive, it wouldn't switch on most stereo music.
• Added "Difference" mode to equalizer.
• Lots of parameters and pages have been renamed, to make it clearer what they do.
• Added optional console window for debugging purposes.
• Relay: Added RDS method A switching, and RT.
• Improved password protection code (should now be safe).
• Compressors: Dynamic speeds: Added checkbox to allow attacking immediately at highest possible speed, which might sound better (AGC, compressors).
• Using Jack or not depends on the file name now - if the name contains "jack" it uses it, if it contains both "jack" and "alsa" it uses both!
• VST2 resizing added, risky...
• VST3 plugin is now a SingleComponentEffect, this should fix rendering issues in WaveLab.
• Added possibility for resellers to block access certain parameters (.st.gui_override).
• "Acceleration" slider under Auto EQ/Bass EQ fixed (behavior was broken).
• Streaming allows = character in mount point.
• Streaming potential exception on closing fixed when there was invalid input data.
• Preset loading and saving completely rewritten.
• Bug fix: Multiple-second hanging on loading certain presets; MicroMPX NIC addresses were saved as "" instead of "Automatic".
• LiquidSoap supports the Generic plugin, and MicroMPX is added to the Generic plugins.
• Short-term half-price (3 day) license increased to 4 days, after getting multiple requests for that.
• Changed Stereo Tool license encoding.
• Console version: Show license errors.
• WatchCat: No longer goes to background mode on Mac when window is not on front, caused it to run really slowly.
• Added DHD mode to run inside DHD consoles.
• HD processing: Added de-emphasis filter, sounds good on low bitrate HD stations.
• VST plugins: Added unlicensed warning in top bar.
• Preset files now contain the word "(off)" for settings that are in an off mode, which allows for future changes of the limits.
• New GUI: Changed precision of up/down cursor keys.
• GUI/Web interface: Fixed unicode behavior.
• GUI/Web interface: Added license warning bar on top of GUI.
• GUI: Made performance display meters more responsive.
• GUI: Added anti-hysteresis to CPU usage popup to prevent it from blinking extremely fast.
• GUI: Tray icon is restored if Windows Explorer crashes.
• GUI: Bug fix: Fixed flashing of some meters (bass meters, limiters in compressors).
• GUI: Changed direction of attack/release speeds (renamed to time); more logical.
• GUI: Improved license message (Scheduler unlicensed instead of "Invalid license").
• GUI: Disabled Progressive ratio if Max is set below main.
• GUI: If an error message keeps popping up, we snooze it for 30 seconds.
• GUI: Split I/O settings into I/O (sound cards, streams) and Broadcasting (the signal itself) settings. Some settings (BS412 audio settings) are moved to Processing.
• GUI: Added warning if Hear is on anywhere (Difference to be added later).
• Bug fix: Encoding MicroMPX from Stereo Tool at 44.1 kHz with block size 2048 and "Ignore low frequencies" set to 38.4 failed.
• Bug fix: AZIMUTH was loaded as part of Processing instead of Repair.
• Bug fix: Jack versions crashed when using input 2 (must have been since at least version 9.00).
• Bug fix: NAN's when changing number of bands (Auto EQ, Bass EQ, Multibands).
• Bug fix: Dehummer could write GUI data outside of memory if used for more than 2 channels.
• Bug fix: Possible crash fixed when using multiple instances.
• Bug fix: HighInYourFace GUI didn't display anything at block size 2048 with Quality > 100%.
• Bug fix: Preset dates were shown in UTC instead of localtime.
• Bug fix: CPU settings reset/load sometimes behaved incorrectly.
• Bug fix: Clipper still looked at some frequency settings that are disabled in Legacy highs gap mode with other legacy setting disabled.
• Bug fix: R128 multi-step processing could end up in an infinite loop (WatchCat/command line/generic plugin).
• Bug fix: Absolute Highs: Small fix that may have some (minor) impact on the audio.
• Bug fix: Some parameters that should only be in the .ini file were saved on full exports (instances, disabled warnings).
• Bug fix: Diversity delay did not work in multi-instance version.
• Bug fix: Empty .wav files caused infinite loop in command line version.
• Bug fix: Linux/Mac: Thread killing could cause a fatal exception (old issue, 9.92 and earlier versions as well).
• Bug fix: Encoding MicroMPX from Stereo Tool running at 44.1 does not work on ARM; now disabled.
• OBS: GUI got bigger every time it's opened in OBS. Workaround added.
• Disabled FM Analyzer in this build; we need to make a separate product for that.
• Overall code cleanups.
• Presets added and updated.
• ST-Enterprise: Added built-in Kantar watermarking, version 8.1, Kantar certified.
• ST-Enterprise: Added built-in Intrasonics watermarking. (contact us if you need it in STXtreme)
• Kantar/Intrasonics: Support separate watermarks for FM/HD.
• ST-Enterprise: Bug fix: After restarting, Nielsen PPM encoding could show an error message.
• ST-Enterprise: Bug fix: Instances > 1 crashed when loading very old settings (from before it was officially released), an early beta customer ran into this.
• ST-Enterprise: Bug fix: Did not work properly (lost settings) in service mode.
• ST-Enterprise: All instances wrote presets to the same folder. Preset list for instances > 1 will be empty after update.
• STXtreme: Support for 2x FM or 1x FM + 2x HD processing. (more to be added soon; contact us if you need it)
• STXtreme: Added built-in Nielsen PPM watermarking, Nielsen certified.
• STXtreme: Added built-in Kantar watermarking, version 8.1, Kantar certified.
• STXtreme: Supports for old and new (to work around chip availability shortages) hardware versions.
• STXtreme: Front panel: Always open front screen on home page after restarts.
• STXtreme: Front panel: Sound cards and sample rates can now be set.
• STXtreme: Front panel: Presets can be loaded.
• STXtreme: Front panel: Added 2-finger scrolling (currently only affects preset list).
• STXtreme: Front panel: Added RDS PS display to top bar.
• STXtreme: Add setting for signal (pre/de-emphasized FM, streaming/HD) selection for HD output.
• STXtreme: AES frequencies read from driver instead of settings file.
• STXtreme: Installer sets the time zone to UTC (causes 3 reboots when updating from an older version).
• STXtreme: Explicitly request to update time via NTP.
• STXtreme: Enabled IceCast.
• STXtreme: Added preliminary support for AES67 on Input 2, not tested.
• WatchCat: Add macOS ARM M1/M2 version.
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: QOS never worked properly on Windows. Now it should work when running ST or MicroMPX in Admin mode (DSCP46/Expedited Forwarding).
• MicroMPX: Buffering behavior completely rewritten; this should work better (on startup mainly).
• MicroMPX: Temporary speedup of synchronization after switching to a new stream, to be in sync with other decoders much faster.
• MicroMPX decoder: Added option to replace the existing RDS data (built-in RDS encoder).
• MicroMPX decoder: Ancillary data displayed in web interface.
• MicroMPX: GPO ancillary data encoding standardized between vendors, protocol for future enhancements defined, see manual Appendix 3.
• MicroMPX: GPS: NMEA timing changed because it failed in Brazil, probably caused by the number of GPS satellites in view.
• MicroMPX: GPS: Decoding is now possible using 1PPS pulses + the system clock instead of NMEA (system clock must be less than 0.4 seconds off; untested).
• MicroMPX: GPS: Added /dev/ttyACM0 for the hardware that we provide for GPS synchronization.
• MicroMPX: Optimized license mechanism, works a lot faster and with less memory now (for new keys).
• MicroMPX: When switching between streams, if we are just below ideal buffer filling we just keep writing there instead of creating a gap.
• MicroMPX: Added stream reset on turning on/off; without that decoders try to adjust for a delay in packet receiving.
• MicroMPX: Added option to reduce webinterface bandwidth.
• MicroMPX: Added workaround for weird behavior in NMEA datastream from a specific Navilex GPS receiver (might be a Linux bug as well).
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: Multicast didn't subscribe on startup.
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: Thread could briefly go to 100% CPU usage.
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: Logging was causing a memory allocation in the call to get the current time.
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: Could hang on close.
• MicroMPX: Bug fix: Fixed 44.1 kHz sample rate calculation bug, which could cause warnings to be displayed - had no real impact.
• MicroMPX: Added 44.1 (176.4) kHz version to enable HD synchronization; not compatible with normal version. Encoder in ST and decoder only so far.
• Only use for testing, rename the binary to contain 176400 in the file name. Library versions have initialization options.
• MicroMPX: Latencies down to 10 ms are now achievable. Not yet released; can potentially cause performance issues with existing hardware decoders.
• MicroMPX libraries: Added callback for when RDS data is received in the bitstream.
• MicroMPX libraries: Added password hashing.
• MicroMPX AM Reprocessor: Added NRSC AM mask.

edit2: For new GUI users looking to make it feel more dense like the older GUI: CTRL SHIFT + expands all cells, and you can adjust the scaling and compactness in the skin settings. Fonts too, if the original ratios aren't to your liking.

Woooo!!!

Congrats on all the hard work you guys put into the app and the new GUI! Looks great, performs amazingly, and sounds better than ever! I can't wait for more folks to experience the new GUI and provide feedback about how to improve it.

edit: The date on the Changelog shows 2022 not 2023. Also wow nearly a year since the first 10 release!

The new interface is very good, I really like the sound... Blessings...

Where is the stable update package for RPI? It seems that is not on website or the forum.

https://download.thimeo.com/ThimeoPi64U ... oducts.zip is the link. You're right though, I'm not seeing it on the website or forum and had to figure out the link from the beta thread.

in version 10.10 when the web server is activated, every time the ST is started, a message appears stating the solution for it does not appear, so far only if the web server is deactivated

on V10.10 the VST plugin the keyboard does not work

Which host, and which plugin type? Try the VST3x64 if possible. Pasting values should be possible with the right-click menu as a workaround for like entering your license or whatever.

Sometimes, depending on the host and the type, it works better than others. I've had plugins of all types accept keyboard input (depending on the host) so I'm not sure why ST can't always do this. With things like precise control, manual input, or even keyboard combinations (for example, to expand all cells with CTRL SHIFT +), it seems like this needs to be addressed in some way. Optimally by solving the plugin's input; or mentioning something in the help section.

There is something in the new VST plugins that makes keyboard handling worse than it was. We're looking into it soon. Pasting with right click should indeed works.

Hello,

It's been a while since I've been on the forum, but the THIMEO team has done an excellent job on the new version of STEREO TOOL, a real gem, what a piece of work! I wanted to know if it was still possible to translate this software into French.