Stereo Tool

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It can be low , but affects the FM modulation clearness. If you can look at the let`s say 100Mhz FM signal with Spectroanalyzer you will see the difference just like i show on the two pictures.

I have just compared the output of version 7.70 (released) against the latest version, and what I see is this:
There is a VERY small area of extra highs present, and that's on purpose - I discovered that my LPF filter that's placed after the clipper was removing too much signal, which caused the total audio level after Hard Limit to be about 0.02 dB softer... Not much, but that effect is gone now. The reason was that the LPF was doing exactly the same thing as the HPF before the clipper, which means that it removed more audio. I've moved the after-clipper LPF up by about 100 Hz. (More at lower latencies).

@DJ_DOGGY: This doesn't look at all like what you are seeing...

Btw, I don't know why the hiss level is about 0.5 dB higher...
O, and there's no pilot visible, but this is the audio that's going into the MPX encoder. It's a bit more difficult to get the MPX signal out... I can tell you though that I also don't see that slope in the MPX display in Stereo Tool.

Stereo Tool 7.71 BETA015

The Quality slider works again in combination with Ignore Frequencies Above. There's a possibility that on some CPU's you might see problems (hiccups in the audio, exceptions), if so please report them... I've tried to test it as much as possible on my hardware and it seemed fine here.

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 71-015.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 71-015.exe
Windows 32 bit VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 71-015.dll

CHANGES:
- Fix downsampling and Quality slider problems: Lower Quality setting

OLD CHANGES:
- Attempt to reduce effect on volume of using Leif's clipping method.
- Fix DJ Doggy's reported errors (19 kHz, junk around tones).
- Ignore frequencies above a specific frequency -> Should lower TOTAL CPU load by another 10-20% (now fully implemented except at lower Quality settings)
- Fixed the lowpass bug that was introduced in 009. Although it has probably always been there! As a side effect, the output is also slightly louder (about 0.02 dB) with no negative effects.
- Fixed distortion introduced in 009/010. Extra highs are still there though! See new 'Sparkling highs' section under Advanced Clipper -> Sound
- Fix optimizations
- Fix code #warnings
- Improved highs filtering in Clipper (both Composite and Normal); sound has more brilliance and suffers much less from ducking on loud sounds.
- Fix bug: NAN's can occur at certain input sample rates (40960 Hz among others)
- Fixed downsampling/resampling issues.
- Made several changes to the Clipper that affect the sound! Sound should now be more open en brighter (but it might have more distortion in some cases, I hope not though).
- CPU: Added 'Ignore high frequencies above'.
- Big Composite Clipper CPU load improvement: Added a new slider ('Oversampling Quality' or something like that); CPU load reduction is HUGE and effect on peak control (for values above 4) seems very small.
- Solved a number of warnings that I added in the last few days
- Some small optimizations
- New Highs Gap Protection improved, now similar in behavior to the old one. I had to add 1 extra step (slightly higher CPU load).
- Fixed problems in 771-004. Some optimizations are disabled - I need to fix that.
- Fix CPU measurement for high loads (jumps to 95% for unknown reason). -> Showing real average instead of median now. Median in dark red.
- Difference in measured CPU load is bigger than expected after CPU load measurement update - check why - DONE, is indeed big! Separate slider added to show both processing and total CPU usage.
- CPU: Clipper: Reduced default number of Bass Clipper steps from 4 to 1
- CPU: Clipper: Implemented Leif's mirrorring method for Stokkemask and optimized steps using Omnia interface, much fewer steps for same result.
- Added option to add a text in the title bar to easily recognize multiple instances.
- EXCEPTION OCCURRED IN HttpServer: Got unknown widget ID.
- CPU: Clipper: Highs gap protection: Use 1 step for non-FM.
- Check if COMMON_STATIC still improves performance, if not remove it -> Does not, removed.
- Redesigned parameter classes and moved everything around for integration with other products.
- Remove Stokkemask mode for non-composite FM clipper (it's probably not working correctly and more heavy than the composite clipper)
- Fixed small bug in Composite clipper FM overhead level compensation calculation. Might make the same setting very marginally louder (less than 0.05 dB)
- Fix crash reported in previous post
- Improved CPU load measurement (small part of code wasn't included, it is now).
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Skipping outer parts of window
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Fixed 'Skip smoothing' mode to be compliant, all other modes removed.
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Highs Gap Protection (trick from Leif Claesson that he uses in the Omnia.9 - nearly no CPU load needed anymore!)
- CPU: Added some #pragma's to make compiler generate more efficient code
- RDS: Added some character conversions (Euro -> E, ` -> '). (not yet tested)
- GUI: Allow drawing scopes in half-height to have more headroom above and below.

TODO 7.71:
- Another bug in latest beta - ST doesn't remember FM settings - presets from the fm list start up with stereo and rds encoding off
- Fix MPX display sample rate issue
- Fix Stokkemask in Leif's mode with Quality < 3
- Fixed problem with click sounds (reported by DJ_DOGGY). Reduced output level by 1% - you can safely increase modulation by 1% if you're using an output that's affected by this (should only be FM signal inside a plugin). If you're using the stand alone version, make sure to set the output level to the sound card no higher than 99% (-0.1 dB).
- Make Chain block (small size) based
- Turning "Bandpass" Highpass filter OFF doesn't really turn it off (!)
- Add delay (in samples) for one of the two MPX channels to send audio to allow synchronization of 2 transmitters which use the same frequency. (John Markis)
- Optimize Chain function: Move stuff to ProcessingChain if possible.
- Remove "Take some shortcuts" under CPU, probably broken! And has not much effect anyway. -> Hm, no, must have been in use for the tests. Ugh... TEST to check what is better: ON (which will probably allow more sounds through) or OFF.
- Synchronization is broken in 008 (was ok in 007)
- VST multiple instances fails
- Make VST window bigger
- Fix Mac VST version (not recognized apparently)
- Fix Linux version (someone mentioned that it crashes after a few minutes, on Ubuntu 14.04)
- Clipper highs improvement
- GUI integration for Multiband?
- Instability in compressor behavior [WesKeene, Bojcha]

TODO:
- Noise learning Micha
- Change default preset (it still uses Classic compressor etc!)
- EQ with 'standard' sliders.
- Make BS412-like graph for levels
- Add 'warm' noise before clipper (requested by Andrew Palmquist, might help with PPM as well)
- CPU: Clipper: Optimize Advanced Bass Distortion Protection

TO DO WITH LEIF:
- Clipper issues Leif / Wolf Stahl (probably the same thing)

Hans, do I need to check anything in this, if I run latency 4096, and haven't turned down any quality sliders? I'm guessing that I don't.

I`m showing the very last Output , not anything else . As you see , there is a difference .
I made it with absolutely same conditions .
The two pictures are made with and without Advanced clipper . So Advanced clipper causes what i`m able to catch with SpectraLab. And i`m sure that it`s from little dostortion . It`s also visible into the DeEsser indicator , when you feed with White noise. Test again and see the peaks that appear . I make Strictness of Advanced clipper to 20 - it helps and clears this effect !

If this is CPU sense problem , then test it with some AMD .
This must be corrected at least . I forgot to mention that the two pictures are made with Strictness 6.

I can make a video of the two version i test , so to see that there is something to be corrected. Yes i know there are code modifications for CPU load otimization , but the result is almost there (just little difference).

Ok, here is the video ..

First version is some of the last betas before 7.60
Second one is very latest beta (it`s shown at the top).

If you think thi is not important , Ok . Will wait for Ignore freqs fix to test , because now there is some strange behavour with it. Noise floor is jumping when i enable it (this is additional to the spike showed before)


http://www40.zippyshare.com/v/zRgb4oP0/file.html

@DJ_DOGGY:
I did just find a small bug which must be in the final step when using 'Ignore frequencies above'. This is causing soft clicks in the sound (around -100 dB). That's the jumping noise floor that you mentioned. I will look into it.

However, I'm not seeing the behavior that you are showing. Which looks bad - it definitely shouldn't happen. However I can't reproduce it here. Can you send me the settings that give this behavior?

This is what I'm seeing, version 7.70 RELEASE vs. 7.71 BETA015:
Note: This is with composite clipper. Your samples are without, but when I turn it off here the output looks almost the same (just softer).

Take the test with file i`m sending you and last beta. I cant attach it because large file. See the link below.
Load settings to both this file and last beta . Test in the way you testing.
Settings attached.
I really don`t know what exactly beta is right before release the 7.60 but please test with exactly this one.
If no reproduce (see difference) even with this .... i give up.

ST stand alone file : http://www49.zippyshare.com/v/DeBwvsEi/file.html

Am excited to see some of the new changes. Thanks Hans.

Have discovered a few things while tinkering around with the latest beta release. (ST SA on Win 7 32 bit - i3-2130)
1. Yip, I heard the odd glitch here and there (hiccups) I'm not sure what it was related to.

Here is an exception which popped up too:

Exception in: ASIO BufferSwitch (Exception 0xc0000005 at address 0x5e49aa, read/write=1, r/w location=0x1a650ecc). Offset-info: 0x5e9044
Restarting: YES

2. Using the same settings (reloaded) between 7.70 vs 7.71 beta 015 - I notice that the Stokkemask seems to either be broken or much more sloppy?

3. Changing from my saved preset to a built-in ST preset seemed to loose the FM setting/s (i.e. stereo encode off). This doesn't seem to happen with 7.70.

Maybe I'm missing something...

Edit: Is the mpx power meter also broken? The light grey mask doesn't want to disappear after what I think I remember was the initial integration time?

Does it disappear when you disable 'Ignore frequencies above'? And is it a single glitch or does it continue all the time?
Weird! I haven't touched that code at all..... In a long time.
Please set:
- Stokkemask Quality to 3
- Upsample Quality to maximum
Yes, that's on my todo list - no idea why it broke but it did. And there are more things like that.
Hadn't noticed that yet, will check.