Stereo Tool

If you're counting me in that group, I'm somewhat indifferent about having them both enabled. The only difference with loudness on, at least to my ears, without the aid of any measurement tool, is just that the sound can be made louder by adjusting the volume. I can accomplish the same thing with the volume dial on my Logitech Z-2200 speakers

I am, however, tinkering with trying to not use loudness and make the adjustments back at multiband.

Anyway, what he's done with this latest version is that the limiter works if you don't have loudness enabled. This should make everyone happy.

What you say is exactly what I have implemented - turn Loudness off and Final Limiter works, turn Loudness on and Final Limiter is bypassed...

Basically Loudness is a 2nd (and much better) limiter, if you turn both on you first limit the sound using a not-too-good limiter, then increase the volume, then limit it again. This was necessary before because Loudness didn't work very well, but should (?) not be needed anymore - and actually hurt the sound quality (2 limiters is worse than one, the 2nd will receive already changed sound and is therefore unable to use all the features in the original sound).

Unless I mis-read something this should be what everybody asked for.

Been toying with it all night. Seems like another step towards the best processor in the Universe, but lets not call it a processor but a sound shaper.
Even oldies sound absolutely perfect with the noise gate that seems to filter out/masks the tape noise.
I tend to push stuff to the limit which easily shows filter errors, harmonic distortion etc, ... but none of that! Nice consistant clean sound which is fully controllable.

The final limiter vs loudness thing makes perfect sense to me. Never ever place 2 limiters right after eachother in chain. This sometimes makes like inverse compression, meaning during hard limiting it can sound like the volume is going down instead of up.
The fatigue that I sometimes had due to the dual limiting is completely gone. Full force hard processing that is pleasant to listen to all day long if needed.

Mega pleased by this version Hans!

Finally my internet connection is up and running!

Some great findings huh...this bypassing Final Limiter. Cool

Well I tried out the new beta releases post beta 70A/71. Didn't find many feedback for those except that of Chris.

Still using the beta70/71 VST for creating a new preset. And with the bypassing of Final Limiter I seemed to have acheived a major breakthrough. Also would like to thank Bojcha for the fabulous Addiction preset. The setting of 6.00 & 1.20 in Stereo Boost is wonderful. I've implemented the same in my new preset. And the last but not least to Hans for providing a great default setting for MB section. I didn't have to fiddle with that section a lot.

Testing few last tracks and comparing head on with Bojcha's Addiction v9 with the latest beta VSTs.

_________________
visit website

Alright I uploaded the presets. Please refer : viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2804&p=7680#p7680

NOTE: The preset has been tailored using VST beta70/71. I am getting sub optimal quality on subsequent releases(checked with beta 76) in terms of tonal quality, highs content and punch.

_________________
visit website

My ears, my ears.... arghhhh

Edit: damn, should have posted it in the share preset thing and can't seem to edit (sorry Hans)

Try this phoenix.
First check soundcard etc since it will go to a virtual cable and output to approx -3dB. Also stereo and 50us enabled

lol Luke....well thats the insane preset effect. Should have tried the default preset.

I hope by now your ears have attained normalcy.

_________________
visit website

When i go to calibrate FM transmitter and i click Test - right channel silence. I can then click Similar, but only using 23-38 kHz stereo signal or Similar, but only using 38-53 kHz stereo signal but when i then click Test - right channel silence i first have to deselect the selected test method. So it's working only good from top to bottom.

I've looked back in the history and I see that there are many changes that could be causing the difference...

BETA72:
- VST audio issue (Are you using VST?)
- Reduce CPU usage for Loudness (currently 23% higher than in v5.02!). I need to simplify the voice vibrations filter, which accounts for 2/3rds of this increase (the rest is the strict bass clipping, which might also be slightly optimized).

BETA73:
- Fixed a highs clipping issue in Loudness (see 2 posts ago)
- Some CPU load reductions (very little, Loudness is about 2% lighter than before).
Effect on the sound is very small.
This version has been reported to sound bad...

BETA74:
- Restored BETA72 highs processing, but did fix highs vibration bug. (I had the choice between removing it or fixing it - in BETA73 I removed it, now I fixed it). (*)
- Added Bojcha's web preset (Addiction V7)
Based on feedback that I received, I expect the sound to be still good here...

(*) I don't know what is better. The comment from Chris seems to indicate that it was worse - current sound is closer to the BETA72 sound. But actually I would expect the BETA73 to sound better.....

BETA75:
- Slightly lower CPU load
- Probably slightly better highs in Loudness if you don't enable 'very strict' bass clipping (very strict should still sound slightly better, but the CPU load is much higher).
This should have NO effect in your preset, since you're using 'very strict' bass clipping...

BETA76:
- Optimized some code to reduce CPU load with no audio changes
- Removed some filters that filtered low clipping artifacts in high frequency areas - seems to have very little effect (probably no effect on the quality). But it might have - but still, this does not affect your preset because you've selected 'Very strict' filtering. I've not optimized that.
- Added a 'Filter' checkbox to enable/disable filtering clipping effects for very low bass frequencies (the 0-150/350 Hz part). Turning this on SLIGHTLY (1-3%) reduces the bass level (eg. filtering is stricter). Not sure if it has any effect on the audio quality (should be VERY little if any); it does reduce Loudness CPU load by 5%. Did you turn this filter on? If not that's another difference - and it would be my prime suspect (there's a reason I added a checkbox for it and didn't just remove it!) Also, this is the only setting for which it makes sense that it has an impact on Punch. Note: This setting is NOT yet saved!

BETA77:
- Final Limiter automatically bypassed when Loudness is turned on. (Display still works!) [Waiting for complaints! Is there a reason to want to be able to turn it on anyway?]


My guess would be that BETA75 is still OK, and BETA76 is not - and then the question is whether it's the new low bass filter ('Filter') or the removed protection of highs against high frequency distortion from clipped lows - or even both.


I'll do some more tests tomorrow.


Ow. Just realized: So far I've been comparing the sound between versions WITHOUT turning 'Very strict' on, there could even be a bug somewhere that I just missed. Again, will do some tests tomorrow...

In the mean time, here's BETA78:
- Fixed DIFF function for Final Limiter
- Added Phoenix's preset (now called R1, will think of a better name later)
Note:
- Quality issue mentioned by Phoenix is NOT yet resolved

Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 510-78.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 510-78.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 510-78.dll
VST version (No SSE2): http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 510-78.dll
Command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 510-78.exe
Linux command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... BETA510-78 (not available)
Linux GUI version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... BETA510-78 (not available)