Stereo Tool

1. Great!
2. I know.. Seen it here too. Not sure yet what's causing it.
3. What do you mean by DS? (Normal output?)

Direct Sound, No_Asio used.

When Restart Button Clicked or program start:
Restart > 300ms audio FadeOut > Processing PAUSE [few ms](till buffer fills) > Processing RESUME] 300ms Audio FadeIn

Seem on slower CPUs, Asio buffer is disrupted by processing, so pause/resume may help.
I added fade in/out better then to hear CLICK.

Wow! I just installed BETA601-033 standalone over 6.00. Much cleaner and alive sounding midrange and high's. Nice change. And about the same cpu usage. Great work! Is there a way to verify the beta version when running, i.e. Help, About?

Version 33. Is indeed better at Higher priority then version 32.

Maybe it's just me, but after i close stereo tool maximized, when i open stereo tool again then stereo tool opens minimized.

Is there any difference in total latency between:
Buffer size of 2.7ms @ASIO buffer granularity of 512 samples and
Buffer size of 2.7ms @ASIO buffer granularity of 64 samples.

Or should the total latency from audio in to audio out be the same?

packzap: Thanks for your reply! And I didn't even try to improve the sound @ latency 4096 that much... - BETA version is not visible in the file, sorry...

eldoradofm: There is a difference: The data is sent to the sound card ONE GRAIN LATER than the buffer size. So an ASIO buffer size of 64 will result in a smaller latency.

bojcha: I've redesigned the Bass Boost filter for latency 512, sounds much better now. Building new BETA now...

all: New build will have slightly higher priority settings when you select 'REALTIME'. eldoradofm: This could solve the single click you heard when starting the CPU torture test. (But I don't think so). The change is: ASIO thread is at prio 31, processing and 2nd processing threads were at 25 and 26 (26 when choosing single core), that's now 29 and 30 (30 when choosing single core).


My list of items to fix is empty... So:

bojcha: Have you posted the latest version of your Addiction preset already? And you were working on a 512-latency preset, is that ready?
phoenix: Same question for you about Pristine preset. I see that you have posted something for BETA012, is that still ok or is an update needed?

I have it.. half day to final check.
Edit:
Addiction final viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2712&start=30

For 512 Latency i'll wait new version because bass Boost. and Question...
Super Low Latency is useful for FM broadcast and home listening, i don't see a reason for Web Streaming Preset at 512 mode where streaming already have much more delay. So should i make for FM Only ?

Ok, make sure to check with the version I'm building now - changes to Bass Boost are quite noticeable.

(Actually I think I should probably do the same thing to Multiband - but that's for a later version)

BETA601-034:
- Increased thread priority for REALTIME priority setting
- Reduced Bass Boost artifacts at latency 512

Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 01-034.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 01-034.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 01-034.dll
VST version (No SSE2): http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 01-034.dll
Command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 01-034.exe
Linux command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... ETA601-034 [not available]
Linux GUI version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... ETA601-034 [not available]


What remains for 6.01:
- Multiband: Adjust band 3 (and others?) 'soft limit' behavior at very low latencies. Maybe: Also check clipping (also for band 3, might be re-enabled!). DONE! - 1 hour
- Multiband: Adjust extreme EQ settings before processing to avoid issues caused by steepness. - 1 hour
- Multiband: Add 'Enable' button for steepness. 1 hour
- Performance: Multiband steepness: Moving UP can be done inside current loop, no separate loop needed. Maybe down too. Currently Multiband is FAR more expensive than before. - DONE, solved in a different way. - 1 day
- MAYBE: Make Steepness smarter. That would much better preserve the audio, especially at very low latencies! How: Instead of setting all the levels at AT MOST the level of neighboring bands + a bit, combine adjacent bands, determine total output level, and then fix it such that this combined output level is approached more. (So one very low, one very high --> one a bit less low, one a bit less high instead of both low).
- Fix NOISE GATE behavior in VST plugin
- Fix 'red output bar' issue. DONE - 1 day?
- Fix Highpass filter for higher input frequencies.
- Dynamic audio processing window: I've tested this at latency 512, and there it helps. But I don't have a clue what the effect is on higher latencies. They might also sound better, but they could just as well sound worse. - 2 hours. Result: 512 and 1024 got better, 2048 and 4096 got worse. So only turned on for the first two.
- Dynamic audio processing window: CPU load is probably a lot higher (haven't measured it yet) due to the dynamic adjustment of the behavior. The dynamic code was originally intended to be executed only once when a latency was selected, and it's not optimized at all. Fixed, CPU load reduced, and for latency 2048 and 4096 there's no difference. - Optimize, 1 day
- Reduce downsampling frequency because currently very high frequencies (21-22 kHz @ 176.4 kHz input sampling rate) in the input can cause spikes even if Hard Limit is used. DONE - 1 hour
- Vibrations caused by Very deep bass distortion protection at latency 1024. Also (but far less noticeable) in higher latency modes. No issue at latency 512 because there it's turned off. - Fixed, turned it on for latency 512, and turned other bass filter OFF for 512 because it caused distortion.
- Check difference in behavior between 44.1 and 48 kHz input for multiband! This could potentially result in really big differences. - No
- Performance: Multiband: Remove sqrt(sqrt(cos())), pow(x, .75) etc. - too expensive, replace by lookup table. - NOT FOR NOW, would increase memory usage and hence risk more page faults, so it's not sure that this would improve the performance. - 2 hours
- Performance: Move chain variables to a single Struct DONE - 1 hour
- Latency: Attempt to reduce Composite Limiter sampling latency - there is no audio anywhere near the filter frequency, so a much shorter delay might still work very well - DONE, composite limiter latency is now 0.9 ms at latencies 512 and 1024 (~1.7-2 ms at higher latencies)! It can be reduced a step further (to 0.5 ms) if I allow a bit more distortion - don't know if that's useful.
- Chris: "I still hear diff on Bass and kick between Beta 16 vs Beta 08 on 2048 latency. I hear more bass and kick on Beta 08. Pls check!" - No longer true, apparently fixed in BETA020... (Which does not make sense at all, but anyway)
- And I need to check how much the performance is impacted by the latency improvements, in the case where no upsampling and downsampling is needed. This seems to be impacted way more than I expected (could also be Multiband steepness --> Not anymore, fixed). Ah, got part of it: 1% is steepness. Which leaves about 3% to be explained. Het is NIET de FM Hard Limit - ook al bereken ik daar nu meer van. Wellicht chain2 calls? - No, wrong again. Decreased Steepness grain match from every 4 to every 16 samples, extra CPU load is now only 2% - acceptable.
- Fix BYPASS mode in stand alone version DONE
- Fix 4096 in stand alone version
- ASIO latency: Add configurable ASIO granularity
- ASIO latency: Add active output push instead of reactive. - No longer needed - I think. Data is now sent to output BEFORE processing. And there's always some processing delay. Might become more interesting when CPU load goes down.
- ASIO latency: Make option to increase ST priority. DONE
- Check ASIO on single core behavior... DONE, option available
- Change ASIO latency interface (lower values, more fine-grained; display actual latency after rounding)
- Attempt to set GAUSS back to 0 - gives MUCH better processing of most filters (no high frequency noise). BUT: Loudness effect in Bjork - It's Oh So Quiet - can that be resolved in another way? - WAIT FOR FEEDBACK
- Frequencies between 60 and 75 Hz are not handled properly yet, and can still cause vibration effects at soft high frequencies in latency 512 mode. (But FAR less than in version 6.00). Fixing this will probably increase artifacts for bass in this frequency range. - WAIT FOR FEEDBACK - Make this level depend on the input level (gives less artifacts when not needed) DONE
- Set Steepness a bit higher than before because there are far less artifacts. DONE
- Bojcha: "There is strange "tone" at LEFT channel (tested ST dsp), caused by Bass Boost, but not always!" - Seems gone now - DONE
- Something is wrong with ASIO if there's only one channel instead of 2.
- Bypass is not good again
- phoenix: Direct sound at any buffer doesnot work unless MultiCore is ENABLED! FIXED
- phoenix: "Change of Thread Priority: Now this really needs working. I'll try to make you understand the pattern that I'm observing. Normal and High donot work. Only REALTIME works depending upon whether ST is run using elevated privileges or not. So if I run ST as Admin, it changes to REALTIME in Win 7/Win Vista, else it sets it to HIGH. Now clicking on Normal or High puts it back to the priority at which ST was running just before setting it to REALTIME. So if it was set to Above Normal(using task manager), it reverts to that when clicked on Normal or High from ST Sound Confg Window." - BEHAVIOR UPDATED
- bojcha: When i change Soundcards samples it should ask me to restart program or somehow to deal with it. Currently it hangs. Moving buffer size or bypass ON/OFF, resolves it. - REPORTED TO BE OK NOW
- phoenix: ASIO sound disappears on enabling multicore. - SOLVED
- Allow setting Realtime priority on Vista (if possible, Admin rights?) - NOT POSSIBLE
- Change buffer size configuration to match whole ASIO grains (probably only displaying them) - DONE
- bojcha: I notice when Opening and starting program is a bit slower, minimizing to tray slower too. but it's ok. - Reported OK now.
- Hangups during closing of stand alone version. (hThread) Solved??? - NOT SEEN BY OTHERS
- Real-time priority +6/+5 possible instead of ABOVE_NORMAL and HIGH?
- Fix different priority settings - BUSY, waiting for feedback...
- Check/fix Bass Boost ringing reported by Bojcha for higher 'upto' frequencies. REDUCED it a bit, hope that suffices... Less steep filtering (ie. bigger difference between first 2 frequencies) helps. Another step is possible to reduce them further (probably 50% more) - DONE, FAR less artifacts now.
- Update presets!

Questions:
* Multiband: Question: Is Steepness behavior ok? - AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE NOW, AND CAN BE TURNED OFF.
* Loudness: QUESTION: The changed Punch behavior, is that good or bad? Should I attempt to let Punch behave as it did in the past as much as possible, or not?


For 6.02:
- It's possible to send data to an audio buffer AFTER I've returned control to the driver if I call ASIOOutputReady() when I'm ready
- Add non-phase linear Multiband stage between AGC and incoming_copy_needed.
- Use double overlap (allow quality levels > 100%) to strongly reduce artifacts
- Introduce extra latency between 512 and 1024 by upsampling or downsampling

Too much artifacts with Bass Boost at 512 for decent FM preset. But i make good progress without Bass Boost.
1024 mode is already much better.