Stereo Tool

In 018 there were separate attack and release values for the Analog mode, they are gone now so you might need to change the Attack and Release times to match the sound of 018.

I've compared the sound of Digital and Analog mode, both by switching and by putting one on the left channel and the other on the right, and in both tests I preferred the Analog sound because it was more constant. The Analog output is a big louder, is it possible that what you're hearing is that the Singleband compressor at the end of the chain is doing more? You might want to try what happens if you lower the Multiband Output level a bit when you select Analog...

I'm also noticing more pumping with heavy, percussive bass. That's interesting, given the unveil preset is built around 7 bands in the multiband compressor. The effect isn't totally objectionable, given the other benefits of the analog compressor. Still, it is something I didn't notice as much with the previous version, and I can imagine not everyone would be pleased with the effect.

The singleband wouldn't appear to be the culprit. As the preset is written, it is activated, but is set to 1.00:1 and has no effect. Turning it off doesn't seem to do anything to change the pumping, either.

One thing I do notice about the current incarnations of Stereo Tool... it greatly enhances good audio, and brings out every flaw down the chain. I can put it in an environment where it feeds directly to a transmitter, and it's a real work of art. Place it behind a double-hop analog STL and it immediately shows you where you need to improve the system.

... which we will do. Stereo Tool definitely holds its own, even in comparison to a couple of $12,000+ processors in the same plant.

I checked Near05's file and I found out what's happening: The old ("Digital") compressor has a limiter which protects later stages - not only the SB compressor but also the clipper - against loud bass. The new ("Analog") compressor has no limiter yet, and in Near05's test track the bass in Analog mode comes out more than 6 dB louder. If I disable (set to maximum values) the limiters in Digital mode it behaves the same.

So, what you're hearing is probably the lack of a limiter.

By the way, I could indeed make a limiter like the one in the digital compressor, but it will also sound the same as that one. Alternatively, I can make a 2nd compressor stage where you can use much faster settings, and also select things like Feedback mode or Ratio. That will give less precise peak control, but it should be very usable to make a very 'analog' sound. (I should probably do that anyway, just to make it possible - earlier samples that I posted that people described as sounding 'big' were also made that way).

really? RMS limiter?

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Well.. why not? Although I should probably also include a normal one. But RMS should sound better! (Especially when combined with RMS compression)

Limiters should (at the very least) have configurable attack and release times, the ones present now are extremely subpar and I've always considered the burst protection a better option mainly because I can choose the attack of the second (faster) compressor.
And gating with visual indicators like I suggested months ago...

After some consideration, I think the best solution would be the following:

1. Add limiters and indeed gating.
2. Add a completely separate MB filter, which is identical to the first (but without Digital compressor support). So, you can choose to use the same number of bands, but also a completely different number. And you can also configure things like band coupling completely separately.

For performance reasons, it would make sense to use the same bands for both compressors, but I can add that optimization afterwards if it's needed. (And anyway, the new Analog MB uses less than half of what either the Digital MB or Classic MB uses).

BETA 761-022

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 61-022.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 61-022.exe
VST 32bit: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 61-022.dll

CHANGES:
Added 2nd Multiband compressor! Example preset is attached below. To me, turning it off makes the sound boring/empty. I think this is exactly what some people were missing in Stereo Tool. And with 2 steps the audio is also more consistent than before. RMS/ITU based preset would probably be even better... To increase or decrease the effect, adjust the Density slider of the 2nd Multiband compressor!

Warning: ITU mode is broken in multicore mode.

OLD CHANGES:
- Optimized CPU load. CPU load now strongly depends on the settings, for the settings that I posted earlier it's now less than half that of Digital mode! On my system it went down (single core mode, CPU load on that core) from 12.3% to 2.5%! (Again, depending on settings). Digital uses 9.1%.
- Merged more parameters (Peak vs RMS setting) with old ("digital") compressor.
- Slower Release speed in Analog compared to Digital
- Removed Shape Enable settings.
- Fixed Knee in Analog mode
- Fixed Aggressiveness slider behavior for Analog (!), made it behave the same as Digital mode (acts only on release speeds).
- Merged more parameters (Attack Time, Release Time) with old ("digital") compressor. Adjusted numbers in Digital compressor to match the (correctly calculated) behavior in Analog mode.
- Merged parameters (threshold, knee, ratio, feedback, channel separation, band mix) with old ("digital") compressor, I noticed that I was switching back and forth all the time to copy settings, so this seems easier. Threshold is now also displayed in dB's.
Made Multiband version of the new compressor! Choose 'Analog' mode to switch to the new one. See attached preset for an example!
- Made new Traditional Peak mode which behaves more like normal Peak.
- Added Lookahead, removes huge spikes at start of attack for fast attack times and reduces IMD.
- Fixed Ratio behavior
- Fixed 'Density Drive' slider in Analog mode
- Fixed no audio with certain combinations of filters
- Fixed a filtering issue in the Digital compressor (!) when using Density Drive > 1.00
- Added lowpass filter to control signal to smooth out bad effects and remove distortion
- Added ITU-1770 mode to reduce pumping and improve level control
- Added Channel separation
- Rewrote all code
- Fixed Ratio
- Channels are not processed separately (wasn't the case before, and that was a bug)
- Fixed attenuation display
- Attack and Release times must be set to half the numbers of the previous beta's. Oil change speed must be doubled.
- Restored old Shape behavior from version 009
- Replaced 'Nonlinear Release' by 'Exponential Release', which works better and only needs 1 parameter. Use this to go up FASTER if you're down DEEPER.
- Added Ratio
- Added Feedback mode
- Fixed out-of-control behavior for certain extreme settings
- Fixed some more weird behavior things if the difference between Attack and Release is REALLY huge (behavior was bumpy and caused clicking sounds).
- Known issue: both Shape On settings must be enabled. I will probably remove them in the next build anyway so I'm not going to fix it.
Fixed a lot of bugs, will type the details here later. Oil Temperature is now in % and didn't work properly before. PLEASE LOAD THE DEFAULT SETTINGS for the new compressor or it will sound horrible.
Changed Attack Time, Release Time, Attack Speed Threshold, Release Speed Threshold to understandable values. Made 1.0 the 'standard' behavior for Shape.
- Added smoothing to oil temperature behavior for both attack and release.
Added Oil temperature behavior which was missing from my automatic (hydraulic) door model. Will explain below...
- Added another Peak mode slider in "New Singleband". The old one (from yesterday) works mainly on release, but in some cases the volume didn't go down fast enough on a loud sound. The new one works mainly on attack (higher value makes attack continue AFTER a peak.
- Changed Peak mode behavior in "New Singleband".
- New Singleband: Split Speed into Attack and Release Speed
- New Singleband: Made Attack and Release Speed Threshold relative to Speed - so you don't need to adjust it to change the shape.
- Added new Dequantizer filter to increase the bit depth of recordings.

TO DO COMPRESSOR:
- Fix MB ITU mode.
- Add Gate and Limiter
- Make SB compressors switchable as well, and support side chain.

TO DO:
Fix MB frequency band shift (10%, since 7.51 or 7.60) - Appears to be gone but I don't remember fixing it (!)
Fix RDS time issue! viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5941&p=28209#p28209
Add RDS control via VST typedef VstIntPtr (VSTCALLBACK *AEffectDispatcherProc) (AEffect* effect, VstInt32 opcode, VstInt32 index, VstIntPtr value, void* ptr, float opt); for Bernd N
Clipper issues Leif / Wolf Stahl (probably the same thing)


Note: I made this preset in 5 minutes just to show what the new MB can do, it's not properly tuned!

please disregard; original message deleted. - made a stupid mistake while monitoring the new settings. sticking with "unveil" for now. Sorry for any confusion.