Stereo Tool

I've made a very minimal change w.r.t. version 3.54, which has the following effects:
- More balanced sound - loud highs have less effect on the bass sounds than before. When loud S sounds are present, the bass sounds are more than 1 dB louder than in version 3.54.
- This also results in a bit more bass and a warmer sound
But:
- Loud highs may sound slightly less clean, and loud deep bass sounds may cause some distortion (although I've tried to minimize it).

I think this version sounds better, but before releasing this as 3.55, I'm asking for some feedback...

Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... r_BETA.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... r_BETA.exe
Command line: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... d_BETA.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... l_BETA.dll

Hi Hans,
i will give it a good try this time.
all above can be downloaded except for the command line which is empty.
Abdul,

Oops - I had typed stereo_tool_cmd_BETA.dll instead of .exe... Fixed!

Hi Hans,
Tried to listen to various music using the latest update, the sound seems to be improved especially with the base, it sounds much louder and clean “it is super”. The treble and midrange are about the same as in previous version – though they are still good. The overhaul sound is clean, rich and still powerful.
Comparing this latest update with breakaway broadcast. I have chosen FM Transmitter (Europe, Stereo) preset for the stereo tool and Plutonium preset for the Breakaway Broadcast, I can truly say that the sound of stereo tool is much better, it is louder and with strong and clean base, the base was never used to be loud and clean like it is now. I wish that users of Breakaway Broadcast can also compare the sound with this update to see and tell the deference.
Regards,
Abdul

Hi,

I'm also a breakaway user (both live and pro) and i must say that stereotool is allot louder, and the high's and low's are souding nice and clean.

So Hans i think it's safe to release this version.

Good work! (but i still would like the bypass option in stereotool )

/Martijn

Thanks for your tests!

I'll release it tonight.

Martijn: I've taken a holiday next week, so I have a lot of time to implement the new interface (every filter gets its own window)... And in that interface, there will finally be A LOT more room for extra features such as ....

hmm .. from v3.53 .. i think low tones are now more then it should be, but i compesate with multiband, but in the same time bass is more punchy (i like that)..
higs are more precise but sometimes on 50% songs i think that they shuld be louder..
My old Aiwa tuner have nicely 5-band EQ meter.. and sound from ST never hit last diode for 10kHz band.

anyway much progress in audio quality!

i hope for new relise where will be new options like .. bypass button, user presets, more rds options .. and rest.

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- Does it reach the last diode for other stations? And in Stereo Tool 3.40 or 3.50?
- Are you using 50 us or the 75 us preemphasis?
- Do you actually hear that it lacks highs, or is it just a measurement? The ST processing causes differences between what you measure as peak level and what your ears think, because it tends to reduce short spikes. You shouldn't be able to hear that, but if you measure the peak level you'll definitely see it.

To rule out any sound card, cable or transmitter problems: Can you try what happens when you broadcast the channels in anti-phase? (In the Stereo Image panel, set "Angle" to 180 degrees, phase and width to 0). I'm curious if the highs are now still softer than the other frequencies.

I can increase the volume of the high frequencies, but doing so would reduce the low and mid frequencies (as it did in version 3.40 and a bit less in 3.50-3.54), which makes the sound very unstable and unpleasant to listen to... Have you tried changing the equalizer settings to get more highs?

- 50us. (europe)
- on 5-band EQ is always on 0
- no it never reach last diode on any version of ST
- with and phase is on 1.00 (i suppose that is default?)

heh .. other stations... mmm better to not to know how is their overall signal...

we have 3 groups of stations National, regional, and local.
Even National goin' outside 75kHz sometimes .
For local statins .. huh .. some of them goes at 200% audio and over 120kHz modulation.

one local staton with 300W transsmiter and 700 meters from me.


so about highs tones .. maybe now is actualy good .. don't know any more .. (to many time with ST)
Maybe it's not possible to go for louder higs and keep 75kHz in place at the same time, specially to keep highs to not crash on some tuners with narrow ON.

anyway .. g00d.

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Bojcha: Looking at that plot I think your input level is too high. That causes distortion, may cause some strange effects... Despite that, the fact that you get such extreme numbers doesn't really increase my trust in your sound card....

I was thinking about the highs a bit further, and I realized that even though there are all kinds of filters that reduce them, if there are no other sounds the highs should still use the entire -75 .. +75 kHz range. So they should still be as loud as what is possible.

Have you looked in the the "FM Calibration" window? There you can play all kinds of frequencies, all at exactly the same volume, and see what your tuner receives. (Of course, the reception of highs will be softer due to the de-emphasis in the receiver. If you have a separate measuring device that would be a lot better. MpxTool in this case doesn't really help because it's using the same sound card that you're using to broadcast...)

If you CAN measure the actual output level, you can also use the FM Calibration window to calibrate your transmitter. Which might solve the lack of highs problem. At least if I compare my sound to that of other stations, I really don't need to increase the highs. Of course in different countries the sound may differ (for example, if you go to the French-speaking part of Belgium, the stations have far less highs than they do here in the Netherlands. And in Germany all the stations broadcast extremely soft (more than 6 dB ! softer than the Dutch stations), but with very clear and loud highs.)