Stereo Tool

Since camclone has shared his unique sound with everyone without sharing his settings, I thought I'd do the same. But if enough people like it, I'll share my settings.

It took me a while to achieve this sound. I am looking for feedback, criticism and suggestions.

It's "smooth" to me because it's non-fatiguing and easy to listen to for long periods of time. It's "flat" because it's balanced in the sense that no instruments come in stronger than another but still keeps dynamics.

This sound is intended for web radio but it can be used with any other application I guess. It's not meant to be a bass-heavy sound either.

I do not have a stream set up at the moment so I will post 30 second samples (original and processed) of songs. Feel free to request any songs and which 30 seconds of that song you'd like me to sample for you.

All files are on Zippyshare. Don't bother using their flash player to listen because the quality is decreased.

Enjoy!

--DANCE--
Alexandra Stan - Mr. Saxobeat
ORIGINAL: http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/54693238/file.html
PROCESSED: http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/95749576/file.html

--HIP-HOP--
Rick Ross - Hustlin
ORIGINAL: http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/50373514/file.html
PROCESSED: http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/2419202/file.html

--R&B--
Monica - For You I Will
ORIGINAL: http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/36980901/file.html
PROCESSED: http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/28912582/file.html

--LATIN--
Aventura - Su Veneno
ORIGINAL: http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/20590521/file.html
PROCESSED: http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/24767883/file.html

Great, clean, smooth and well balanced compressed sound !!
Love to get your settings

ABDUL

Moved to proper topic

btw, too fast multiband.

I think the fast multiband catches everything so there's no imbalance and so the sound remains "flat".

I must say I like camclone's sound that he's shown us with his stream. It is also very "flat" and very balanced.

Feel free to suggest songs people There's lots of music I don't know and I"d like to test it with those problematic songs that we all know about.

Well, it's all what is actually good for you!

To be honest sound of Camclone's 'stream' (in soft words) is horible! But that's me! He maybe like it, and obviously you and others.

In your preset i like only it's not loud so dynamic is bit keept. But i don't like ultra compression from multiband. This compression is maybe possible (acceptible) in 1 band after MB but we don't have it in ST.
Best example is you'r last track (Monica), all is smashed too far, but again.. that's me.

Your preset is totally opposite from what Breakaway, StereoTool, Omnia, Orban, makers trying to achieve last months/years, like More dynamics more punch, more detailed sound.... they even try to uncompress original brefore it goes to main processing.

B^^

Hmm that's interesting that you say that. I love the sound of music when it's flat/balanced. I have not found a way to flatten it anymore than how I did it in this thread. And it's interesting to me that you say Breakaway, ST, Omnia, etc. have been trying to move away from that flat sound. That flatness is what makes radio so different and I always liked that.

I guess on that I"m a little confused. I mean, if I could get a flatter sound (yes, even flatter) I would. But if the radio processing tools are striving to move away from that flat radio sound they have now...Maybe I"m looking in the wrong place to achieve my goal?

Processing isn't trying to move away from consistency. It's trying to keep the current consistency while also removing the real problems associated with it... like sounding too processed.

What I did with Passive Aggressor preset for Breakaway core is really amazing, and I can't wait for you all to hear it. It would not be possible without the dual wideband compressors that Breakaway adds to the AGC section... without having major problems with sudden audio, since the multiband is VERY VERY slow.

The slowness of the multiband, combined with what is effectively using a dynamic ratio feature of the core as a form of density-based compression (first preset I really optimized that with), is what allows the consistency to be so great. Simultaneously it's also the most dynamic Breakaway preset yet.

It would be nice to see Stereo Tool have a multi-stage or multi-windowed time constants on the AGC. It would make it possible to use much slower time constants in the multiband, for even better consistency.