Stereo Tool

I'm now building a new version where all the dynamically calculated bass clipping (and de-essing) levels are displayed.

The bass clipping display isn't very clear yet, you'll need the following legenda for now:
- Bar 1: Very low bass (0 .. 150/300 Hz) clipping, including voice vibration bass reduction
- Bar 2: Strict lows (0 .. 250/350 Hz) clipping BEFORE Punch
- Bar 3: Strict lows (0 .. 250/350 Hz) clipping AFTER Punch

Here it is:
Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 510-64.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 510-64.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 510-64.dll
VST version (No SSE2): http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 510-64.dll
Command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 510-64.exe
Linux command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... BETA510-64 (not available)
Linux GUI version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... BETA510-64 (not available)

I have a different bass clipping mechanism in mind that might also work, and cost less CPU power. But I don't expect any big differences in audio between the two methods.


Bojcha, if you're still looking at clipping, can you check that (assuming Punch and Strict are enabled) that the lowest of the 3 output displays (see my previous post) does not rise too high? If it does some settings must be wrong.

You was right...
I needed to set Strict from 0 to 600 and no-strict to 600 .. because there is still some sounds if it is at 300 or 350.

Now this freqs are super-strict. - edit: now, not "not"

btw, I found this settings "Increase dynamics" interesting, must test it more.

Not? - Edit: Ok, now, already thought so Great!

(Transport: TODO list from page 62):

What remains for version 5.10:
- Disable separate pre-emphasis and relaxed clipping when FM processing is enabled. It's currently too confusing. ■ DONE
- Remove remaining spikes -> behavior is incorrect, it should partially maintain spikes that are really big (= difficult to get rid of). ---> Looking into this I found that I need to do something very different, and I also need to do that for normal (non-web based) processing: ■ DONE
- Add 'maximum mirror reflection' and make it configurable. ■ DONE
- Add an extra slower Hard Limit phase, or let the volume come up slower when the peaks get really loud, to avoid bass artifacts in xylophone sounds. Easy to do where hard_limit_volume[] is used. ■ DONE
- Also fix the singleband behavior (AGC style on/off). ■ DONE, default is OFF again, built-in presets with Loudness get ON
- Fix Loudness distortion caused by louder bass and lower highs. ■ DONE
- Use 'large file mode' for command line version. ■ BUSY, waiting for reply ■ DONE
- Fix hangups for switching between Singleband AGC/non-AGC switching. ■ DONE
- Save all new settings to disk (INI and VST): 'maximum mirror reflection', 'multiband constant frequency', ... ■ DONE (?)
- Reduce Loudness window height a bit. ■ DONE (?)
- Fix Punch artifacts ■ DONE
- Fix 'dirty punch' due to different handling of the very deep lows and deep lows. -> Must follow Lowpass filter settings. ■ DONE
- Attempt to make bass filtering below 90% more strict in Loudness ■ DONE
- Enforce limiting strictness even if Punch is enabled. ■ DONE
- (Optional) add FM hiss filter - removes FM hiss from input signal, useful for re-transmitting ■ DONE
- Fix Very deep bass distortion protection artifacts (or remove it) ■ DONE - not perfect but won't get better than this
- Set Allow louder lows to +10000 (or remove it) ■ DONE
- Fix settings in presets to closer match modern CD sound (less highs etc.), using the Median display. ■ BUSY
- Fix Allow louder highs behavior. Attempt to replace it by a highs AGC. And rename to de-esser. ■ DONE
- Test what happens if I (constantly) allow more distortion! ■ DONE
- Move strictness to lowest freqs only? Currently audio is also kept below configured midlow level (100%) instead of below configured verylow level (90%). ■ DONE, using separate settings instead now -> Low freq area is still needed for voice vibrations!
- Check if voice vibration filter can be set much softer due to strict bass clipping. ■ DONE, no... But since it's not needed to also reduce the bass during Punch it's not too bad.
- Replace current filtering by bass clipping in each clipper step? Or at least lower the number of filtering steps. (Lower CPU usage and better "S" protection expected). ■ DONE
- Fix De-esser in 512 samples mode ■ DONE
- Disable Very Strict button when Strict is disabled ■ DONE
- Change 'Allow louder highs' name to avoid problems with older versions, add dB display, and save as real value. ■ DONE
- Loading and saving new setting in STS file ■ DONE
- VST: Loading and saving new setting in VST plugin ■ DONE
- VST: Add setInitialDelay() call to compensate for Stereo Tool processing delay ■ DONE
- VST: Make VST version working again on all hosts! ■ DONE
- VST: Check loading and saving of int/float parameters in VST plugin hosts ■ DONE
- VST: Bypass mode: Copy input to output when out-of-place processing is selected ■ DONE
- VST: Keep window at position (0, 0) with its specified size. Change borders. Separate VST plugin main window without close icon ■ DONE
- Display de-esser and voice vibration filter effects ■ DONE
- Check which 'New Loudness bass processing' sliders must be kept, and place them at correct location. ■ DISABLED THE UNNECESSARY SLIDERS, UPDATED DEFAULTS ACCORDING TO BOJCHA'S AND CHRIS'S FEEDBACK - WAITING FOR COMPLAINTS...
- VST: Check audio issues (muffled, different AGC up speed). ■ DONE, waiting for reply
- Check audio (bass processing) in lower latency modes
- PRESET: Update FM presets for louder highs ■ BUSY 2 hours
- PRESET: Check the new presets (including Bojcha's). 1 day
- PRESET: Check and add good new presets (also in the 'share your settings' forum). 1 day
- Release 5.10
- UPDATE DOCUMENTATION

Later:
- Protect Multiband against steep valleys
- 192 kHz FM output
- 400 Hz tone, Bessel null tones? [eldoradofm]
- Stable scope (see viewtopic.php?f=14&t=2726&start=10 . Probably solution is to find the loudest tone, with boost for the lows, and then lock to that).
- Cleaner FM hiss filter output (currently some artifacts remain, I think they can easily be removed)

YOU are the GOD of sound processsing!

but :

what do you mean by : to do : 192 KHz FM ?
Isn't it already 192 KHz ? ( SCA encoders maiby ?! )

Some sound card apparently have an issue with 176.4 kHz (which is what you get if you play 44.1 kHz audio in Winamp, VST hosts etc.). Most sound cards support that frequency natively, but not all - and then Windows starts resampling, causing all kinds of weird artifacts because the resampling algorithm is really bad.

To fix this I need to include a _better_ resampling algorithm in Stereo Tool.

No Stereo scope ? The X-Y thing that is very usefull for monitoring?

A few posts back there was indeed a hot discussion on the sampling rates glitch, initiated by a forum member. Had the perception that this concerns only Standalone version. That too for esoteric purposes like FM x-mission.
So this also finds it way through VST and DSP versions you say. And that it has to do with the fact that soundcard drivers not innately doing resampling to desired rate, rather it's done by the Windows mixer. But I was wondering does this apply to all APIs like ASIO, WASAPI, DirectSound and WaveOut. I mean theoretically speaking, if using ASIO(or KS/WASAPI in exclusive mode), Windows resampling shouldnot come into picture.
I did post something similiar (that was for VST though) a few days back thinking the VST plugin is not handling sampling rates other 44.1KHz correctly. But surprisingly the last release (ST 5.02) of VST plugins apart from working seamlessly on almost all VST hosts, also worked consistently at all sampling rates.
Would wait for the 'sampling rate fix' then.

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May I also suggest wrt to VST plugin to actually save the last working preset including CPU Quality and Usage(eg,latency=4096 etc) in the .ini for the VST file pretty much like the dsp settings .ini file. It often so happens some VST hosts, revert to defaults just after monitoring and prior automated rendering.
That might help the cause.

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