Stereo Tool

Stereo Tool 4.01 is available. I have improved the bass level compared to version 4.00, it's now nearly identical to that of version 3.55 - but without the distortion that that version had.

Changes w.r.t. 4.00:
- Loudness filter: Improved bass sound, especially for high (3.0+) Loudness values.
- Bug fix: VST plugins working again.
- Interface: When clicking on a panel which' window is already open, it jumps to the front.

Since I never made a similar post for version 4.00, here's the list of changes in version 4.00:
- Redesigned the interface. The main window is now smaller and less crowded. Each filter has its own window now, and many values are displayed in dB also.
- The output displays in the main window are now synchronized to each other, and can be synchronized to the audio player sound card output.
- Added a fix for the annoying "part of the previous song gets played at the start of the next song" problem in Winamp. Note that this fix is a workaround for what is essentially a problem of Winamp, and it may not be perfect.
- Reorganized the Presets pulldown menu, and added the 10 last used preset files to the list. Also the currently selected preset is visible in the Presets pulldown button now.
- Added more control over how the Loudness filter works. It's now possible to allow more highs or more lows to pass through (this may cause some distortion though).
- Pre Limiter is now using perceptive volume instead of peak level for much better initial volume control.
- Added a filter to remove remaining loud peaks after the Pre Limiter filter. The Pre Limiter works with a delay, the new filter is a lookahead filter that removes remaining peaks, which occur mostly at the start of a new track after some silence.
- Final limiter now has an option to use less CPU power (in that case it doesn't preserve the volume).
- Added a pre-final limiter filter for loud peaks (the normal Final Limiter is loudness preserving, but it doesn't handle very loud sounds well. This pre-final limiter filter removes those very loud sounds.)
- Loudness filter: The Loudness filter can now handle much louder peaks than before. This even makes it possible to use the Loudness filter as a limiter.
- Loudness filter: Loud "S" sounds now cause far less bass level reduction - so the sound is more stable.
- Loudness filter: Added a filter that detects and removes high frequency distortion caused by loud deep bass sounds.
- Loudness filter: Improved the filtering so it sounds smoother now. And with the same settings the sound is slightly louder than before with less artifacts.
- RDS: Added "Now playing" support for Winamp plugins without the need to use external files.
- RDS: Added date and time displays.
- Improved the HARD LIMIT filter, sound should more consistent (less pumping) now.
- Included the Singleband Compressor from versions 2.11 and below again. It's available from the Limiting & Loudness window.
- Added some presets made by Vamprecords, SuperH and Bojcha.
- Added a "Bypass all" button on the main window.
- Added "FM RDS TA" button on the main window so traffic announcements can now be indicated without opening the FM configuration window.
- Performance: On multicore systems, the processing now uses multiple threads. Some slower AMD dualcore PCs couldn't handle FM output in High quality, now they can.
- Fixed a bug: The highpass filter seems to have been disabled when Multiband compression is turned on since version 3.50.
- Fixed a bug that could cause blocks of bad pixels in the user interface.
- Fixed a bug that caused presets to sound slightly different when they were selected while audio was playing.
- Fixed a bug: On startup, even if Multiband HQ was ticked Multiband didn't run in HQ mode.
- Greatly reduced the gaps that occur when switching between presets.
- Uncoupled screen redraws from processing. This allows Windows to select a different CPU for screen updates on multicore systems, and they might get disabled temporarily on single CPU systems when the load is high.

Superb work.

So, now it's official.

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control point
control point2

Bojcha, check the main page.

I've used a different screen shot, but I've used your shades around it - thanks!

i saw it hehe

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control point
control point2

Hi,I installed the new version 4.01 does not work.Does not work either SamBroadcaster
I have vista 64 bit.
enclosed a photo

Ok, I'll look into it. Do you know if version 4.00 did work?

And, what happens exactly? If Winamp is NOT playing music and you start Stereo Tool, does it crash then already - or does it crash when you start playing music?

yes!4.00 Work
4.01 will not start crash winamp!
you enclosed the problem if you can 'help

Same here! but after i re-installed winamp it works fine..


EDIT: after i closed winamp and restarted it it was not working again..


/Martijn

Cause found! Version 4.02 will be available in about an hour...

I hadn't removed a logging statement that I added for testing before releasing it... And on Vista that logging statement causes an exception because the logging is being written to a location where Vista doesn't allow applications to write to...

For some reason it didn't cause an exception on my own Vista 64 system...

Version 4.02 is available, should no longer crash.