Stereo Tool

Im trying out stereo tool on our fm station and it is a fantastic program capable of a lot of things. However when i run the program it seems like the sound is always kind of tinny. When you turn to another station it is much more rich and mellow sounding. Im trying to figure out what im missing. Im listening and its always either way too much treble or bass. And i may seem nuts but theres just a lot more range of audio like a lower gain but higher overall output. Maybe its a preset? Could it be the agc bringing up the lows? I just dont know.

I run a digigram vx222 out of my automation pc into tascam mixer into my stereo tool pc which uses an esi julia xte card. Any help or someone that has a really good preset for an fm radio station let me know. Thanks

Hi..
Have you done some FM measurements yet?

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Just to rule out some 'taste' issues: Here's a comparison between one of the biggest stations in the Netherlands and Stereo Tool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBdDGIxDWs#t=75

100.7 is the other station, 99.3 is Stereo Tool. This is the type of difference that I hear when comparing with most stations here. If you hear something completely different then something must be wrong (and it's not the preset).

as far as modulation, ~76-79 khz peak. my audio doesnt seem anywhere near as clear as the 99.3 one. i play a lot of instrumental, jazz and older stuff. Its hard to describe because im not a radio or audio guru by any measure. but its like the "quiets" or "lows" are not all that quiet or low. it just seems super processed sounding, like its being driven to death.

do we know what preset that 99.3 is using?

also that 102. station sounds like its overdriven, or that song about crashing a car into a bridge just blows.

Maybe you can describe your transmission set up a bit more? Any chance that you may have double preemphasis running? i.e. using Stereotool and the transmitter?
If you are able to test audio running directly from the Stereotool pc into the transmitter do you hear the same audio qualities? (Can you exclude the possibility that there may be an 'issue' earlier in the chain?)

That 99.3 station was running one of the presets made by Jeroen Platenkamp which was actually made to sound dirty to match the sound of the other stations (100.7 and 102.3). Most presets sound *much* cleaner and less processed.

This video is pretty old (I think almost 2 years) and recent versions also sound much better... So at least now you know what sound to expect if everything is set up correctly.

The FM sound should be roughly similar to what you hear without using an FM transmitter if you use Normal Output (White FM output is also enabled)

Also might make sense to check the gain staging throughout the system, reference levels etc.

True. If your input level is very low the noise gate might be causing all kinds of bad effects.

well like i said, i'm not a radio expert, just working on a system trying to get the sound better. the output of the automation pc is really low, because it will overdrive the mixer board. as far as output on the stereo tool pc, it isnt all that strong. before i started having to adjust the mpx input on the back of the transmitter (BW tx 150) i could only get about 40 khz. but the stereo tool pc is running the sound card at 100 percent and i have to push the settings to get 75 khz.

i'll look over it again and get back with you guys. thank you.

Since ST is doing a great job in audio compression you should rather expect the opposite - I had to turn it way down in order not to exceed 75 kHz.

Maybe it's just a stupid question, but... did you check the volume (MPX level) slider in FM-out in the Stereo Tool? If you pass the MPX signal from ST through VAC/Hi-Fi VB cable into MPX tool for example (you can try demo mode), what is the deviation displayed?
With MPX-tool in the chain at the very back-end, if you choose for example Unveil preset in ST, and set MPX level to -3dB, the MPX-tool should display exactly 100% (75 kHz), as it uses -3dB as a reference level by default. If you check that and all will be as it is supposed to (and sound right), then most probably the cause is something else than the ST processing itself. Note if you change MPX volume - the whole MPX-level changes and not the audio only (it affects all of its components proportionally - so lowering the MPX volume also lowers the pilot, rds and so on)



Also - check if you don't have another slider for ST specifically in the system audio mixer and whether it is not, by accident, turned down.