Stereo Tool

-SNAP-

Ok so Symmetric Peak was actually routed incorrectly in the software. And FB^2 mode in Symmetric RMS wasn't perfect (it could get some overshoots on really extreme content). Both issues are fixed now, and I changed Symmetric Peak to now be based on Symmetric RMS instead of Symmetric AVG, which is still not good and will be removed after I'm done with testing.


Edit: Now fighting with a compiler bug (the compiler crashes during compiling...). If I manage to fix it before I fall asleep I'll post a new beta tomorrow morning. Otherwise it will take longer.

Stereo Tool 8.55 BETA036

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 55-036.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 55-036.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 55-036.dll

Windows 64 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 55-036.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 55-036.dll


CHANGES:
- Fixed Symmetric Peak
- Fixed an issue in Symmetric Peak and Symmetric RMS mode with Feedback^2 enabled, for very fast attack times the Shape is higher now to avoid overreacting.
- Fixed Basstardizer: The threshold calculation was completely wrong, it worked fine on constant bass but not on dynamically changing bass.
- Basstardizer: Make Effect strength slider relative to Headroom (which turns into Harshness) - At higher Softness settings Lookahead now controls punch!
- Fixed DLL closing issue (in Audition and other programs; calling a DLL close from program close caused a hangup)
- Added mono bass fiter to reduce multipath



OLDER CHANGES:
- Added extra protection mechanism to avoid insane release speeds. For MB, MB2, SB Compressor this can be switched on/off for testing - I will remove the checkboxes once tested.
- Relative release threshold was not calculated correctly for FB and FB^2 modes.
- Moved RECOVER_FROM_NAN outside of adjustChannel_internal_linear_attack_release_feedback_peak_peak_gate_limit to fix compiler crash.
- Bass mono fiter to reduce multipath Done, but parameter needs to be controllable separately.
- Added Symmetric Peak mode. Not at all tested yet!!
- Added Stop Threshold values for multiband compressors. They were already there for the singleband compressors, but not yet for multiband!
- Symmetric modes were visible for Digital compressor but not supported by Digital mode!
- Added "Relative release threshold" slider; removed Symmetry slider. For all dynamics processing things (so LLB, AGC, Auto EQ, compressors). Not 100% sure yet if this is a good idea for Auto EQ. See text below (*)
- Max release speed fixed
- Basstardizer: Fixed issue with difference between left and right
- Crash reported by near05 (fixed?)
- Improved external RDS insertion to allow for noisy RDS signals (some encoders (actually apparently from one specific brand) generate a pretty bad signal, which was rejected by Stereo Tool).
- Added sound card lowpass filter compensation to FM output sound card (so now beside tilt for bass there's also something for highs). NOT YET FINISHED, may cause weird behavior. It will work in many cases, but not in all. Does not work when "Ignore high frequencies" is used. Description will follow when finished.
- New compressor mode. Check all weird settings, optimize, new peak mode, remove faster attack/release, add setting for max release, fix max attack/release speed controls. Things to check: "Peak", "Peak mode", "Feedback", "Feedback^2", "Exponential release", "Max attack speed", "Max release speed". New mode is called Symmetric RMS, there's also a Symmetric Averaging but I will probably remove it because it's not useful. MORE INFO BELOW!
New AGC mode MORE INFO BELOW!
New Auto EQ and Bass EQ mode (not switchable in Bass EQ since that's new anyway). MORE INFO BELOW!
- RDS: Add PTYN
- RDS: Add timeout for TA
- Improved multipath protection
- Improved Stereo Image phase limiter
- Revisit new Hard Limit / Final Limiter with Matt & Wes - Settings removed Waiting for final feedback.
- MPEG detection is too insensitive now -> Probably fixed Waiting for feedback
- UECP UDP mode Waiting for feedback
- TA/TP via MagicRDS. Auto-enable TP if TA is used? (no)
- Added THIMEORT in ASCII RDS mode.
- Spectrum displays are broken in 4K mode
- Compressor/limiter on input before AGC to handle extreme sounds? / 2nd AGC with higher threshold for voice tracks Added, may need new mode. Waiting for feedback.
- Add auto save to Linux build Waiting for feedback
- VST delay appears to be wrong - Phase Delay and Threads
- VST version no 4K
- Backup input - fix overshoot display
- Backup input - check stereo
- Fix web server long URL issue Test release mode needed
- Scrolling through presets in 4K mode locks screen (crashes).
- Pilot-only output for 9 , works but needs to be sent back to O9SG
- Self test crashes
- Fix affinity for Linux and Mac - Mac doesn't support it.
- Edwin's bass effect - is that done now? (Maybe an extra HPF?) -> Not needed for now, based on preliminary tests...
- Put Bass EQ under license
- Do we need multiple Basstardizer bands? -> Doesn't seem like it. Not for now.
- Remove Hans mode from Bass EQ? -> Hid it (Extreme Tweaker mode, Matt mode is default, made it a pulldown instead of a boolean to clarify its behavior).
- Octaviafm extra logging? - Waiting. Once we know the cause I'll run a new build. But I'm not going to hold off releasing the current version, since 1. this issue doesn't have any side effects anymore and 2. it very likely isn't new. -> Nothing heard anymore
- Would multiple where_i_am start points improve attack? YES!!!! Think about how to implement it...
- Enabling low latency output caused crashes
- NAN recovery added to Basstardizer
- Top area of GUI made a bit higher, not all menu items fit before
- Bigger font and widgets on 4K screens
- Added Basstardizer
- Remove warnings that were shown for things that weren't even enabled.
- Fixed NAN in 8.54 in several versions in the clipper (reported by 1 person, appears to have been settings-related).
- Matt's bass effect Ready to get feedback, see "BASS EQ" before or between multibands! See note below.
- Fixed Mac multiband compressor gate error after NAN recovery.
- Add Breakaway Pipeline warning
- Add low input level warning
- Add too little AGC action warning
- Add too much noise gate warning
- Add too much BS412 action warning
- Added ASIO latency setting.
- Made streaming with libVLC easier, WARNING though, the audio quality is still the VLC streaming audio quality, there are better encoders out there. This only affects the stand alone versions.

TODO:
- Fixed Digital Multiband 1 mode Flat frequency response bug introduced in 8.54.
- Fix Basstardizer crash
- Fix Basstardizer right window shape
- Make pilot generation smooth for external feeds for DARC etc.
- Auto EQ move where_i_am back to close to min/max settings to avoid insane response times without SJP
- MB2 band coupling bug: something is wrong, check better-fg-plus.sts -> Seems ok now. Weird.
- Check Auto EQ behavior on sudden level changes, and initial Auto EQ behavior after startup
- Optimize new compressor modes, create separate "NICE_MODE" code paths, put all values in a LUT.
- Test NanoPi
- Classical preset
- NAN seen when switching to new compressor mode which also doesn't get recovered - silence afterwards. (Peak mode recovers it though).
- Make default window size bigger for 4K
- 4K mode line spacing bigger for presets
- New skin
- Is pre AGC affecting audio levels? (With BS412) -> Not specifically for BS412, but it slightly reduces the level even if set a lot higher. Probably needs some offset.
- Aanvraag uren
- AM streaming output
- Basstardizer fadeout (Edwin)?
- Add AM presets
- Check MB2 1% something (see FB chat about crackling sound, which was ok in 8.00). Test with Rhodes54 preset -> Ok. But Spideys Web (7.41 vs 8.54) is different, let's test that.

- WatchCat: Use "Simple Clipper" for R128 normalization if there's no license for Advanced Clipper.
- WatchCat/Generic plugin: Respond to latency request with different number for step 1 and 2
- AF method B via UECP
- "Stereo Width" in Stereo Image is broken - it causes phase problems if you're using it to go to mono with silence on the other channel. This can be made smarter!
- True Bass puchier - filter out start
- 18 Hz trigger tone
- Declipper check L-R effects
- Reduce extreme stereo
- Raspberry Pi "gedeelde bibliotheek" melding.
- Check out Butt
- Add libVLC instability warning
- Loudness meter (also for streaming)
- Omnia.9 set Stereo signal. Probably fixed? Wait for answer.
- Omnia.9 test/fix logging
- Omnia.9 AutoPilot add flag for generating noise above pilot?
- WatchCat website
- Triple stuff
- Thumb up/down in GUI for presets

- SCA2 use as backup, feed to output without processing, bypassing normal chain. Use to have FM receiver as backup, and then just feed the full signal to the output.
- uMPX 24x2ch interface
- One bass page

- GUI: Hide disabled stuff, far less confusing / much cleaner interface.
- Talk to chip
- 2 jaar
- Fardau
- -24 dB side chain range?


NOTE: Bass EQ
1. This thing should not really be needed because there's already Auto EQ. However Matt Levin insisted that it's useful, especially now that they are playing very old Christmas music, so let's try it out!
2. There are 2 modes: Matt Mode (see checkbox) or Hans mode (unchecked). In Matt mode, the highest band is not adjusted but it is used to determine the levels. So in the last stage, the highest band is in bypass mode, but the other bands respond as if it's working as well. So the bass is adjusted compared to the full spectrum. In Hans mode, the highest band is ignored completely, so if you use 2 bass bands, they are adjusted to match each other, but not the rest of the audio.


New compressor mode info:
About 3 years ago I wanted to redesign the whole compressor based on how water pressure control systems work. The whole idea was to have a compressor that moves fast when it has to, but stands still when it can. And that it would behave 'naturally' - it's something that you could actually build with real components (if you treat water pressure as audio levels).

This appeared to work pretty well. If you play a dynamic track, the compressor acted fast, and if you play an already compressed track it does nearly nothing. This is great - because it doesn't add 'restlessness' to already compressed audio, which would lead to listener fatigue.

Short summary of the rest of this text: It never worked as I envisioned! (And I never even realized that). But now it does!!

Some people have complained about the attack sometimes working too fast - which was mainly noticeable in loud 'S' sounds. The fast attack with much slower release could cause a 'gap' in the audio after the S. But I figured that that was a more or less logical consequence of the the whole act-fast-when-you-have-to idea.

Now fast-forward a bit. Last year, 2 people (Wes Keene and Matt Levin) were working on a preset together with very high compressor ratios and they noticed that in one particular track, a vocal which was originally louder than the surrounding sound actually came out softer. Well, that's not good. It sounds really annoying and broken. After looking into it I found out that my design was actually not - as I had thought - controlling the level based on RMS levels, but based on average sample levels. In most cases that's closer to RMS than peak, but it's not perfect, and as it turned out, in some cases flat out wrong.

So, I added a new mode that actually controls things based on RMS levels. And - different than many traditional compressors - it would control based on RMS levels regardless of whether it's long time or short time levels that you're looking at. Typically, a compressor would use some window over which it calculates the RMS level, and then control the audio based on that. That works great for most content, but if you play a track that for example has a very loud kick every second or so, the RMS window won't help a bit and your long-term level will probably be too low.

So I created a new RMS mode, renamed the old one to Average mode, and thought I was done. But, the problem with loud "S" sounds has gotten way worse! And it was even worse than that: Release was slower than before. So to fix that, I added some "patches": "Big release speedup" and "Big attack slowdown".

This new mode doesn't need that anymore. It's completely symmetrical, and it's still RMS-based, both on short and long time intervals! It still moves slowly when it can and fast when it has to - but not insanely fast if the attack is really big. And release isn't very slow anymore.

Since attack and release speeds are now virtually identical for RMS and Average mode, and you probably prefer RMS levels over Average levels, the new "Symmetric Average" mode is basically useless. I've put it in for now for testing, but I'll remove it afterwards.

The AGC and Auto EQ were suffering from similar issues, and I've fixed those too. There you can just disable "Legacy mode" - if I'm not wrong, the new mode should be better for any purpose than the old one.

Important: The CPU load is really high right now. I will optimize it later.

Also important: You can't just enable this new mode and expect everything to be fine without changing the settings. For small level differences there won't be a difference, but there will be for big differences. You'll definitely notice the slower attack on big level jumps.

2 issues:

8.55 beta 036 / 035 : loaded 8.23 sts file and after that auto eq settings. Processing stopped, sometimes comes up after 20 seconds, but not always. When processing on tried to load earlier bass eq settings this now works but when I change effect strength the processing stops again, in fact any change in auto bass eq stops processing. This without crashing

Setup : ST 32 bit VST loaded in Foobar.
Cannot enlarge ST. The final limiter still not shows (also not in Wavosaur). This is a bit complex because loudness really needs to be controlled when auto eq's get on.

Info on this: Windows 10 , display size 1920X1200 or 1280x1024 (both don't enlarge)

HWinfo :

_________________
https://maasstad.online/

Digital (no audio cards) on Rivendell, Jack Audio Connection, Liquidsoap, Icecast and Stereotool 9.37 in Virtualbox.

Hello Hans,

The Basstadizer module when activated causes the application to stop.


Name of the failed application StereoTool. exe, version: 0.0.0.0.0, timestamp: 0x5aa1fb4e
Default module name: StereoTool. exe, version: 0.0.0.0.0, timestamp: 0x5aaa1fb4e
Exception code: 0xc000000409
Error offset: 0x00000000000205b84b
Faulty process ID: 0x16e0
Start time of the failed application: 0x01d3b7a16cb3388f
Failed application access path: C: \Program Files\Stereo Tool\StereoTool. exe
Defective module path: C: C: \Program Files\Stereo Tool\StereoTool. exe
Report ID: 616c1207-147b-4c91-abe3-d0dd3627f98d
Full name of the faulty package:

I see that I forgot to turn off writing intermediate test data to file. If it can't open that file it crashes. This may also explain the other hanging behavior... I'll remove it and build a new beta tonight. For now, avoid Basstardizer

Ok Hans, your software is the ultimate in this field and affordable compared to dedicated devices, thank you for your investment and attractiveness of your work.

Yeah, I was just going to post that enabling the Basstadizer crashes VST Plugin Analyser.

The fixes for symmetric peak mode look good. It's pretty seamless to move from old peak to new peak. The main recommendation I would have for people is to slow all releases down by about 20% when moving from the old peak mode to the new one. In my opinion, that provides the best general approximation of the old mode, so you have a reasonable starting point.

That depends on used Attack. Erlier on old modes not.

_________________
control point
control point2

Actually attack seems about spot on. I haven't measured, though. The new mode definitely releases faster for any move bigger than about a dB. That's why I suggest slowing those times down about 20%. No doubt, many of the moves will be larger than 1dB.