Stereo Tool

No, coupling is still determined in percentages (actually later Optimods specify it in terms of dB, which I *prefer*). For instance in Band 2 > Band 1 coupling, at 50%, band 1 must always have at least 50% of the gain that band 2 has.

The internet connection in my office seems to be down, so I cannot connect to it from at home right now... So, no updates until tomorrow evening.

About band coupling: I think now that I completely misunderstood the whole concept, although there is some use to what I made as well, but the amount of control that I was trying to give with my new Bad Coupling panel seems way over the top - that is, if I make what Wes Keene said you can probably do much more with 3 sliders than you can do now with 81. So, I'll remove it in the next build. Unless someone has a good reason to keep it.

Sorry, I didn't mean to make life rough!

Hi Hans,

Was'nt here a few days

I still use the bandcouple matrix. Maybe there is a better tool for spectral balancing tracks for radio (see above), it could be well used in creating musictracks or liveperformance.

Thanks

(see attachment for some experiments, used with a=432Hz, aka SAM, pitch -2)

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 52-015.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 52-015.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 52-015.dll


Note: I'm still waiting for feedback about the usefulness of the 'Method' slider for the voice vibration issue. It's not here anymore, please use version 014 for that.


CHANGES:
- Fix GUI crash at certain display sizes
- Test Declipper after PNR
- Test voice vibration methods 0/1/2 - I don't hear it, waiting for feedback... --> Just go for "0".
- Clear log in box when logged in.
- Made CPU affinity more user friendly (pulldown and masks as backup)
- Check if CPU load didn't increase for 3 Highs Gap Protection steps in FM HQ mode instead of 2. Both for with and without composite clipper. About 1% increase, including voice vibration protection. That's ok. But in Composite mode the difference is much bigger! Check; if needed go back to 2 steps. Or, if I'm using vibration protection in all steps, turn it off in the 1st 3 steps. --> Went back to 2.3 steps (last step is done 1/3rd), CPU load is now roughly the same as before. Highs gap protection seems to be nearly unaffected.
- Clip highs stricter when highs cause volume drops. -> Doesn't seem necessary

TODO:
- Improve password protection. Prepare to later also support password protected presets (not now). Mail Henk M.
- Check Multiband settings Bojcha in Skype - ok, seen it, but what should I do with it?
- Check Band Coupling in MB compressor. --> REMOVE and replace by what Wes Keene said.
- Optimize band coupling in MB compressor; ignore bands with coupling < 0.5%.
- Split limiters from coupling.
- Crash in BETA014 stand alone http://i.imgur.com/Fpz7Jmr.png
- Re-record 'This sound is processed by' thingy. It sounds annoying and I hear it on too many stations now... (even big ones with millions of listeners lol... they should really get a license!)
- Add interface for media group I talked to at IBC for 50 FM and 50 web stations.

PREVIOUS:
- Check pilot generation code (57 kHz harmonic) -> Pilot is ok (generated output does NOT contain this tone), this is only a GUI (frequency analysis for displaying) issue. Ignore.
- GUI: Weird jumps at 100 ms buffer size reported by DJ_DOGGY -> Must have occurred at both 100 and 200 ms. Should be fixed now, there were 2 different values used to switch between quick updates with fading and scrolling without fading. Now both use the same value.
- Hide panels in password protected mode or something Temporarily done, now waiting for feedback. *
- Voice vibrations: Choose one of 3 methods (010, 011, 011A). Added Method slider. See viewtopic.php?f=3&t=5734&start=47 Waiting for feedback to finish this. **
- ABDP: Mid tone intermodulation distortion: Make new filter at start of ABDP to control mids clipping level. Clip lows and mids separately, then together, measure volume loss for each and then use that as new clipping levels. Only in case where there are loud tones present (voices) with loud bass. Bojcha: Phase Tornado fixes it. Problem seems te be caused by combination of: 1. Loud bass below 100 Hz (maybe even lower); 2. Loud mids consisting of a constant tone with no or very little other sounds. But apparently only if this constant tone has a lot of harmonics - a sine wave comes out nearly ok. Ok. Fix almost there now. Todo: Improve detection (bigger frequency range? Add highs!!!). Todo: Measure at 75% clipping as well. TODO: Harmonics turnoff should not affect bass!
- Sloppy causes crackling sound in piano's. Should probably be switched off is there are very little highs.
- Highs Gap Protection: Turn 3rd step off for non-FM mode.
- Highs Gap Protection: Forgot to make changes in Composite Clipper mode.
- Fix declipper + PNR. Does it cause problems if it's used as intended? MUST BE TESTED TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T DAMAGE THE SOUND
- Fix crash when clicking on volume bars.
- Highs Gap Protection: 2nd step does almost nothing - why? - Correct, but seems ok this way...
- Highs Gap Protection: power_X must not be used (sounds better without), but it must be used for something else because if power_X is 0, the current filter is insufficient. --> Now not using power_X anymore, but 3 steps instead of 2 in HQ gap mode. This seems to be very close to the optimal result. Need feedback on this.... it appears to be ok but I'm not 100% sure that the problem is completely gone. And I still need to test if it doesn't increase highs intermodulation distortion (probably not though).
- Don't use Sloppy value when ABDP is disabled.
- Highs Gap Protection caused a jump in the spectrum between 3.5-3.8 kHz for loud highs. This is now smoothed over a bigger area (2400-4800 Hz).
- Bad gap in ABDP - causes highs to sound less full. Fix ASAP! Only in Composite mode! Was introduced in one of the previous beta's
- Make Configuration, Repair and Processing settings saveable separately.
- Split filters in Restoration / Processing.
- At Band Coupling '0' the values in the GUI weren't recalculated properly.
- Default value for Sloppy was 0% (-99 dB), should be 100%.
- ABDP: Added new "Sloppy" slider. Effect: Slightly louder, 0.5 dB more highs! And probably less pumping due to highs. (*)
- Band coupling settings don't work if Band Coupling slider in main Multiband window is set to 0%.
- Declipper result is very bad if PNR is used before it. NOT SURE YET IF IT'S REALLY FIXED.
- PNR can also be done AFTER declipping.
- Display FM lowpass frequency at bottom when FM output is used.
- Show warning when PNR is disabled due to changed settings.
- Added Multiband compressor Band Coupling matrix. You can use this to overrule the standard band coupling settings. Only available in Extreme Tweaker mode, awaiting responses to see how useful it it (if it is useful I'll move it to Expert mode).
- Advanced Clipper: Advanced Bass Distortion Protection (ABDP): Drop in output when strongly clipping around 2600-4000 Hz is reduced.
- Advanced Clipper: ABDP: "Smooth Slide" slider added to make transition between deep bass (clipped) and less deep bass smoother. There used to be a drop upto the 2nd configured bass frequency, with this switch enabled the drop is smoothed (maximum at 1st configured bass freq, gone at 2nd). Result: Warmer, more open, less 'restrained' sound. But probably also a bit more intermodulation distortion. (which might be fixable by changing the frequencies a bit). (*)
- Added PNR Noise & Hum
- PNR analysis data is saved now
- ABDP: Calvin Harris ft. John Newman - Blame has distortion in lower highs; Highs distortion protection doesn't seem to handle it properly. Except for that I'm now getting a good sound for almost all tracks with bass clipping set to 100% (!) and Highs Priority to 20%, Sloppy at maximum. Cause: Highs in this track are at around 4 kHz and I'm not filtering highs for harmonics there. Very unusual track, ignore for now.


* I got a complaint from someone who wants to resell Stereo Tool, but is afraid that customers will touch the settings and then keep coming back to him. His request was to only give them access to the AGC, Multiband and some FM settings. To do this, I have added a PASSWORD protection mode (only configurable in Extreme Tweaker mode right now, it's in the Configuration panel). You can set a password there and enable it. Once that's done, almost all the settings are hidden, until someone enters the password and presses the 'Log in' button.

This solution doesn't completely make sense yet though, because it's currently still possible for people to load and save presets etc. I don't know if I should disable that (saving presets seems quite useful, even if you only have access to MB and AGC). Also, I think people should have access to at least some sound card settings (if they want to connect it to a new transmitter for example), although I could imagine that you want to have an expert present at that moment.

Also, I wonder if it would be useful to have 2 modes: One with AGC and MB and some more things, and one where you cannot do anything at all until you've logged in.

Note: Password protection is VERY dumb, you can easily turn it off in the .ini file or even look up the password in it. The goal is to keep 'idiots' out of the system, not to keep everyone out.

Let me know what you think...

i`m not hearing voice vibrations , so slider must be removed in my opinion. It`s getting too complicated in this panel , too much options . So this slider not needed, keep it simple as much as possible.

Important edit : I like the new look at the Distortion panel in Advanced clipper - excelent!

The new password option in Configuration panel is "compress" the space for the other buttons and some translations are almost cut at full screen. . Is there a way to minimize this new (unuseful) option a little.

I don't see what you mean here, can you make a screenshot? Thanks...

This is the button - translated just with 2 more letters, but was Ok before add the new password option. But when in English , the Watchdog texts are almost at at the cut . Looks a little ugly like that for a long button.

Hi. One thing that bugs me is the persistence on the oscilloscopes. The reason being that it does not look like a DPO scope at all . In staid it get very bad and congested especially with declipper on. So my wish is to make persistence switchable and/or if it easy to implement , a proper DPO (so high energy (like clipping) part are shown brighter than the low energy ones (like very small transients).

Now i don't really use the band coupling matrix but it should be kept as a feature but only in a high level mode (like extreme tweaker)

Thank You Very Much

_________________
Very proud user of Stereo Tool since 2010. Thanks Hans.

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http://amradio.ddns.net