Stereo Tool

I have, but isn't spam etc. an issue? I mean I already get so much spam on these forums, using a Wiki would be like opening all ports. (Or maybe people should first request access.)

They've gotten a lot better about that. If something does get trough it's very rare. Most things have to be approved before it's given a public view status. I might be something to consider. It would take some of the pressure off of you to keep the manual updated.

-n4-

With a wiki page you can setup a system so any new addition will have to be approved by an admin of sorts (hans) before it appears in the final page.
I'm talking about a custom wiki page, not wikipedia by the way.

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But, I can, because it was me.
A good starting point to examine the problem and its solution is to look in the free rs-met SignalAnalyzer VST plugin and its different options as I have already described here:
viewtopic.php?p=7415#p7415

IMO a very slow drawing resulting in true waveforms (pre and post the processing in the manner I have described for the usage of SignalAnalyzer) would be much more informative than any traditional oscilloscope behaviour which is much too fast for the human eye to draw any serious conclusion in this context of audio processing.
Oscilloscope is a very old tool (originally it was used, because other more complex analysis tools did not exist and in other technical measurement situations than audio processing).
But for Stereo Tool (or BA which had it before Stereo Tool) it is more or less an optical gimmick.
So, slow moving waveforms would be much better and something new and superior (in competition to BA products).

I was actually thinking in another direction:
- Create a separate files for each window, containing a general description of what the window does.
- Create a separate file for each panel, containing a description of the purpose of the panel.
- Create a separate file for each slider, containing a description of what it does
And then generating the manual from these pages.

Advantages:
- Easy to maintain: If I add a new slider I just have to upload the text for that slider. Ideally I would build those texts directly into Stereo Tool as tool tips, or at least allow popping up the correct text on the site.
- Easy to translate, if a translation of the manual in other languages is made and a slider is added, it's immediately clear what needs to be translated and what is already ok.

Disadvantages:
- Not so easy to edit by others
- How to describe the combined effect of a number of sliders?

The text files that need to be edited for this are very simple (just like Wiki pages), and I could allow access to selected people to allow them to update it.


Example:

WINDOW FILE:
WindowName=Bandpass
Alinea=This window configures filters to remove very low (bass) or very high frequencies.
WindowPanel=Bandpass filter

PANEL FILE 'Bandpass filter.pan':
Alinea=
Slider=IDC_OUTPUTFILTER_LOWPASSSLIDER
Slider=IDC_OUTPUTFILTER_HIGHPASSSLIDER
Slider=IDC_PHASELINEAR

SLIDER FILE 'IDC_OUTPUTFILTER_HIGHPASSSLIDER.sli':
SliderText=... Hz
SliderSubText=leftmost slider
StsText=
DefaultValue=30 Hz
Purpose=Remove very deep bass sounds.
Alinea=Controls the highpass frequency. Tones below this frequency are removed.
Alinea=The behavior of the highpass filter is affected by the setting of [slider:IDC_PHASELINEAR].

From this I could generate a nice page for the bandpass window. Or for a single slider. Also, it would be very easy to show a list of panels and sliders that can be 'opened' by clicking a '+' in front of them. The fact that I know the name of the slider (in my software) also allows highlighting the slider when the mouse moves over its description, or vice versa.

What would be missing this way is things like tutorials, 'how-to'-s (how to make a sound like ...), etc. But maybe we need both (and the latter could be placed in a Wiki).


Example output:
Bandpass window
- Bandpass filter panel
_ _ - ... Hz (leftmost slider)
_ _ _ _ Purpose: Remove very deep bass sounds

_ _ _ _ Controls the highpass frequency. Tones below this frequency are removed.
_ _ _ _ The behavior of the highpass filter is affected by the setting of Phase linear

_ _ + ... Hz (rightmost slider)
_ _ + Phase linear selection


And I could make a slightly different view (without the '+'-s) for a printable manual etc.

Actually that seems a very good idea - and it's very easy to implement. (Definitely a lot easier than stabilizing the output).

@ Hans

To get a quick impression how it could look like, you can enable in foobar the Oscilloscope.
Maximize this oscilloscope window horizontally and then using right-click options Curve duration = 800 ms.
But IMO this is still a little bit too fast.
Slower something near 1500 ms would be perfect as default value for waveforms.
Would be perfect if you can make it configurable (slider or inside the INI).
This way the user can decide whether he/she prefers oscilloscope type (fast) or waveform type behaviour (slow).

I should warn you: This display is first lowpass-filtered. So the real output (which displays the actual peak levels) will look far less 'clean' than this.

Bingo !
And this is the reason why it would be nice to have something superior in Stereo Tool to see what really happens.

I can see what working really well too.
I suggested wiki because its already setup, you just have to link to it.
If these were accessible through the program that would be even better!
Would you link it to an online source or would the documentation be included in the program install?

Even though they aren't editable by the average user, we can still provide input through the forums.
Similar to how you update stereo tool you can do minor changes to the documentation as one large update or do serious changes immediately.
Either way someone needs to fill all the pages with relevant and useful data. (that sounded redundant )

The combined effect of sliders could be added as footnotes to panel pages later on.
Or located in a different file that is referenced by the relevant panels.

The best part of this setup is having the correct info right next to the slider its related to.
Beginners would be able to get the basic hang of the software a lot easier and people who have used it for a longer time wouldn't have to search for the info if they need it.

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