Stereo Tool

In the mean time, low latency monitoring is working again - now using the same code as the normal latency audio. Which makes things a lot easier. I still need to fine-tune it (certain filters need to be switched off, and Natural Dynamics and the multiband compressor sound very different for some reason).

Edit: Seems ok now. Will run a release build tonight, right now I can only test the debug version (which uses about 10-20 times as much CPU power so I cannot run it in realtime).

Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 41-020.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 41-020.exe
VST32: ----://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_stereo_ ... 41-020.dll


Note: Something is weird. I can no longer detect a CPU load decrement compared to version 7.40. I know that I measured one for BETA 010 or 011. But if I compare that version to the current version I also see no difference! This is especially weird because a lot of things are removed from the code.


Changes:
Rewrote LQ Low Latency monitoring to use the normal processing code. Works reasonable, sound resembles that of the normal latency EXCEPT for the bass limiters and to a lesser extent the compressors in the multiband section. Memory usage for plugin version is reduced by more than 20 MB. Stand alone version might use slightly more than before.

Older changes:
- Fixed FOX TV Carbon Coder R128 normalization issue Waiting for feedback.
- Moved a lot of threads into a single thread. Might improve hiccups that some people have reported.
- Added Power Highs (it's in the same window as Power Bass).
- Moved Power Bass and Power Highs to before the wideband AGC to improve volume level consistency.
- Sudden fast rise of bass or highs is limited, new slider 'Release boost' added. I'm not really sure yet if this is ok; if there's a loud high or low sound it can push the band down a lot, and it comes down slower than before. If needed I can add something to allow it to come back faster after a short spike. Waiting for feedback first though.
- Sidechain checkbox removed (without that doesn't exist anymore).
Attempt #2: Redesigned Simple Clipper. Reduced CPU load.
- Reduced the memory usage
- Fixed most of the Stereo Image artifacts!!! "Deprecated" is removed from the sliders that were marked with it. See (*) for a cool new possibility!
- Removed some more unnecessary steps (AZIMUTH 2x, Stereo Boost 2x). 10 remaining.
Fixed 'Post filter for DC offset' problem.
52. Check CPU load. Start with checking if there's anything left that uses the 'unnecessary steps'. Sevdah Web preset: Data still gets converted 58 times... I think I need to do this one first, it should have some effect on the CPU load. 28 removed - next convert the 2 IIR filters so they can be optimized and the merge/split around it can be removed. I'm not measuring any effect from this though (but it makes the code simpler which is also good)
53. Noise Gate/Stereo Boost: Pre-calculate 1-cos() and sqrt() values.
55. Check MemoryPool behavior for cache improvements -> No effect measured, and might make behavior less constant.
56. Check if we can go in opposite direction for each next step to improve cache.
57. Check if lazy reverse FFT is an option. -> No, difficult and gain does not even seem to be measurable.
58. Created a separate class that performs the processing chain. Currently the same code is repeated twice (once for normal processing, once for low latency processing) - which means that a lot of code is duplicated and it's difficult to add extra chains. Most, not all, of that code is now moved elsewhere.

TO BE DONE:
Spread over cores is not constant, which causes differences in performance. I *think* it might be the chain2() code that causes this. Actually it might be a good idea to get rid of that completely...
Improve Multiband3 and Singleband2 limiting and (to a lesser extent) compression for low latency settings. LQ output should sound similar to normal output! Fixing this will also improve audio at lower latency settings. Compressor is probably more or less ok, limiter is pretty horrible, also at lower latencies!
Add HQ mode, STEP2 values are probably wrong for intermediate steps! -> done
- Phase Rotation (I need to compensate for loss at certain freqs in low latency modes) Done but GUI is still bad - FIXED
- AZIMUTH
- AGC behaves slightly differently for lower latencies - Kinda OK. With shorter block size the drop for short spikes is bigger, which leads to a slightly lower overall output level.
- Clipper (probably only ABDP) does not work well for latency 128. Yup -> if I lower the top bass freq from 400 to 200 Hz it's MUCH better.
- Hard Limit does not work properly in HQ mode. Possible solution: Use normal STEP2, then boost levels to match maxima. See HardLimit::prepare
- Something removes low bass in low latency modes. -> EQ and other things. -> Improved. Difference is very small though.
- New ASIO behavior: Push samples, read them back directly from buffer, skip whole Chain2 stuff.

yes it is weird....

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This beta is good with GUI up about the Load . Uses bit more memory - may be about 20 mb more. But GUI up load is very cool . 27-29% , no peaks like before.

Hi Hans,

Please upload a build for VST plugin in one of the forthcoming beta releases. Considerable changes since 7.40!
Intend to check them out and update my work.

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+1

VST - Yes! x64 version please

Will build a VST as soon as I have a working version again (in the midsts of some other changes at this moment). x64 is a bit problematic - it takes far more work to build an x64 version because I need to do that in a different OS.

Ouch!
I installed Adobe Audition CC and it doesn't accept anything less than x64 VST unless you load in jBridge, but it doesn't work good (for me). I will continue to use your release x64 version and wait patiently for an update.

Hans,

Installed your beta version tonight. Wat I noticed (I gues it is there since you designed it) is that stereo seperation when using the option "Advanced Clipper" is getting very bad!

Maybe something to take a look at?

Regards,

Michel