Stereo Tool

Ok, I've been experimenting a bit and I've found the solution. Will post a new version when I've implemented it.

Done. ++ is working properly now. Does take a lot more CPU power than before though.

Note: I still need to tweak it a bit for an even better sound quality. (I know I can make it a bit better, at the cost of using more CPU processing power). But this is the best version to date - with Loudness set to 2.00 and ++ on, the volume is higher than that of the loudest 3.2x version, and the quality is better.

Feedback on the sound quality is welcome again.

Sounding good - lots of CPU tho at max.

I noticed something about the noise gate.
Between off and on - 20% difference in CPU on my PC using task manager.

Just thought you might want to be aware of it.

The noise gate should be taking slightly less CPU power than the Multiband filter (HQ off).

Note: I've done a long listening test with the current version, and I'm still not really satisfied with the sound. The tests that I did earlier clearly sounded better (clearer highs - I still hear some distortion with the current version). I'll look into that later - the current version seems to be acceptable for now.

Update: Reduced the amount of distortion by about 50%. (At the cost of a bit less than 1 dB lower high frequencies).

Update Loudness filter:
- Reduced distortion a lot more.
- Warmer, more natural sound (closer to original without Loudness)
- Reduced high frequency artifacts by almost 50%.
- Lowered CPU usage by about 30% (not for quality Low).

Even very difficult sounds (xylophones etc) are now nearly perfect.

Known bugs:
- 2008/10/20: SOLVED Final (Pre) Limiter output displays don't function properly
- 2008/10/20: SOLVED When changing the Loudness filter settings (especially when turning ++ on or off) the Loudness filter can be in a bad state, causing very strange sounds. If this happens, reload Stereo Tool to fix it.
- 2008/10/20: SOLVED Delay is not calculated properly: The output sliders are not displayed correctly (they have a delay)
- 2008/10/20: SOLVED Pre Amp and final (pre) limiter don't work unless another filter is turned on.
- 2008/10/21: SOLVED Command line version crashes (the beta version that is online now is an older version).

To do's:
- 2008/10/21: DONE I still need to do some tweaking on the Low Latency version
- Update presets

Almost finished now, just need to update the presets and check the performance.

Note: If you are using Low Latency mode, keep "++" off. It causes a large delay (compared to the delay of the rest of the processing), and sounds a lot worse than without Low Latency mode. Also, keep the Loudness value low (not higher than 2.0).

Hello Hans ...

It would be good if you could get ST to clear the buffer, if Winamp is stopped.

The problem is when you start another song, (after Winamp is stopped) it will play
whats left over in the buffer. (about 2 seconds)

Thanks and keep up the good work!

Tekie: Will put that on my todo list - but I have another project that I have to work on first, so it might take some time before I can look into it (and I'm not sure that Winamp notifies plugins properly when Stop is pressed).

I have just posted a beta version on the download page. Changed the version number to 3.40 because there were a lot of changes in processing, presets etc. See viewtopic.php?f=14&t=102 .