Stereo Tool

Stereo Tool 7.43 is available!

Changes:

• Added separate processing for FM and Normal (or plugin host) output.
• Streaming output: Added option to send output to a stream using VLC.
• Streaming input: Added option to pass extra parameters to input VLC (just type them after the URL).
• Limiters: Greatly improved limiter behavior. Limiter (in all compressors) now works much tighter, causing less pumping and less distortion.
• Usability: Added sound card error popup screen with better error messages.
• Lower CPU load when using streaming with low pre-emphasis values, by using LQ Hole Protection mode.
• AM Transmitter: Added AM Transmitter panel.
• AM Transmitter: Added NRSC AM pre-emphasis curve (slightly different from the FM 75 μs curve).
• AM Transmitter: Added C-QUAM AM Stereo compliant clipping and limiting.
• AM Transmitter: Headroom slider added; no more need to abuse Post Amp to make headroom for asymmetry.
• AM Transmitter: Added Downmix to Mono button checkbox to AM panel.
• AM Transmitter audio now uses FM sound card settings (including tilt correction).
• AM Transmitter: MPX (frequency) graph now also visible in AM mode.
• Added auto-start with Windows option.
• Added Watchdog, regularly checks that sound card inputs and outputs are working. If no audio runs for a longer period, sound cards and later Stereo Tool gets restarted (stand alone version only).
• Added Exception handling: Exceptions should never occur, but if they do, they are now handled gracefully: They are logged and shown to the user, an attempt is made to continue processing, if that fails (exceptions keep occurring) Stereo Tool (stand alone version only) can be restarted automatically.
• Added Event FM License (lower price, works 3 days at a time).
• Added CPU load (actually, percentage of time busy with processing) display.
• Added an error popup window if sound cards cannot be opened.
• Added translations (Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Hungarian).
• SCA frequencies are now configurable for HAM radio.
• Reduced memory usage of stand alone version.
• Merged in older changes from a separate project, should not have any noticeable effects for end users.
• Bug fix: Fixed crash that could occur when switching input from sound card to VLC and back to sound card.
• Bug fix: VLC input channels could get swapped. Fixed.
• Bug fix: VLC input with Low Quality Low Latency output hangs. Output is now disabled when VLC input is used.
• Bug fix: Opening sound cards could fail sometimes if ASIO and non-ASIO were combined using the same sound card. Fixed by opening the non-ASIO connections first, which appears to solve the issue.
• Bug fix: Compressor Difference mode didn't always work properly.
• Code improvement: Ran code checkers cppcheck and PVS-Studio and fixed all the (real) issues they reported.

That's a big surprise, so fast.

Great new implementations - was really looking forward to try out the new output streaming feature with VLC!

However, Stereo Tool crashes whenever I enable Normal Output streaming to VLC. And when I open Stereo Tool again, it runs for a few seconds, and then it closes itself and opens again. Not playing with this anymore, as Stereo Tool is processing the FM signal!

Using 64-bit Stereo Tool. 64-bit VLC installed aswell. The "restart on crashes or unsolvable sound card timeouts" function is enabled.

UPDATE: Even when "restart on crashes..." is disabled, Stereo Tool still closes and then re-opens itself (with audio dropping out for about a second), when I re-open the application after a crash.

Can you send me your settings? Mainly so I can test what happens with VLC. I'll check the restart behavior tonight... does it also restart if you press the "test (crash)" button?

o, and is it a "hard" crash or do you see it in a popup inside the ST window? Could you send me the message that you get? (If you have a directory c:\temp it should be stored in a file there!)

When Stereo Tool crashes, I get a “Stereo Tool has stopped working” error message (Windows dialog box style) while Stereo Tool grays out.

When I click the “TEST ERROR (CRASH)” button, an ST-dialog box show up, and after clicking OK, Stereo Tool crashes and restarts itself, runs for about 10 seconds, and then it crashes and restarts once again.
(The TEST ERROR button only crashes Stereo Tool if “Restart on crashes…” is enabled - I guess this is normal behavior?

I have looked in the temp folder (placed in User/AppData/Local/Temp as I use Windows 7), but it seems there is no usable files? Latest changed file in that folder is from one of months ago.

The ST-settings used is attached! Thanks for looking into this.

lol slow down hans.

A lot of weird things - I'll check them all. I thought I had protected everything against 'hard' crashes, apparently not! Edit: Good news, I just managed to reproduce it. It must be a 64 bit specific issue. Edit #2: Crash happens somewhere inside VLC. It's very strange that it crashes again - after restarting it should just keep working. There's no reason for it to crash, unless you press the TEST button again. Edit: Doesn't reproduce here. Do you have another setting (for example in VLC) that might be causing crashes? You should ALWAYS get the crash popup message, but it shouldn't restart but just keep running if it's disabled. Edit: Works as described here... It really writes to C:\temp, not the temp folder. If C:\temp doesn't exist, it doesn't write anything. Thanks! And thanks for reporting this!

Stand alone 64bit can't play stream.
"Cannot open input: bad device id please restart ST"

_________________
Urban Junglist

I had that restart ST error as well when I had loaded a settings file which had another audio card defined. I just selected the right audio card and it was OK.

C.

Cause of VLC problem in 64 bit version is found. Will fix it asap.