Stereo Tool :: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA

Quote:

I know that this is topic about new versions and since in newer version there is matrix mode,
can you give me information how this stereo effect is different than ACR or stereo boost?
Because sometimes I think it's reacting too much in terms of stereo picture.
Thnx!

Long story... Basically it comes down to "I was wrong about how good stereo widening works" - multiple times. Fortunately it's not only me working here anymore, and Mathijs figured out how to do it, which led to the _new_ matrix mode. (There's also an _old_ matrix mode which is less good).

- Stereo Boost is the oldest and simplest stereo widener in Stereo Tool, it's basically just a 7-band multiband compressor on the L-R signal, which doesn't allow the L-R levels to exceed the L+R. It works but it can very easily boost reverb a lot (since reverb typically fades out and Stereo Boost will increase it when that happens).

- ACR is kinda based on older 1980's designs, it adds the L-R signal with a delay to the audio, and mainly adjusts the amount of L-R to add on louder spikes and transients. The goal here was to avoid pulling up reverb too much. Unfortunately, because of the sudden jumps it can cause a bit of a "restless" sound, and we figured out recently that if you turn the delay OFF, it actually sounds much wider. The delay was needed in the past to avoid too strong stereo which interferes with FM reception, but even for FM we can live without it now because of Stokkemask. (You can turn that on to protect against reception issues caused by loud stereo sounds).

What I understood wrong upto this point is that what gives the impression of loud stereo is not so much the constantly present difference in L vs R, but mainly the stereo effect in transients. Both Stereo Boost and ACR were actually boosting the rest of the stereo sound, and the transients least of all.

Enter matrix mode. What it does is very slowly (at the speed of the AGC) adjusting the L-R level relative to the L+R level. Since it responds very slowly it boosts transients and other sounds equally. When you use it you should turn the other two OFF. If it does too much, "L+R to L-R channel mix" controls how much of the L+R signal is measured as part of the L-R channel - setting this higher reduces the effect, especially if there's not much L-R content in which case it would be boosting to insane levels. So, increasing that slider will reduce the effect mainly in cases where it's doing a lot.

Author:	hvz [ Thu Aug 15, 2019 12:48 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Quote: Hi Hans, Is there a linux jack link for the new beta? Warmest Regards, Thomas E ARM or Intel? I'm not doing Intel Linux builds because I need to open a lot of VMware environments on my pc for the builds, and they sometimes cause out of memory errors (on a system with 32 GB RAM and 100 GB swap space, ugh). So I only run those when I do a release build.

Author:	hvz [ Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:42 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
BETA013 is available. Main difference is that on Raspberry Pi (or other ARM based CPU's) if you enable "Block heavy processing" and use Stokkemask and L-R Asymmetry, the CPU load is about 20-25% lower than before. (We also have a new binary specifically for Pi 3/4, but that doesn't get uploaded automatically yet, and the difference in performance with the Pi 2 version - when measured on a Pi3B - is only 1-2%).

Author:	drbusy [ Tue Aug 20, 2019 6:01 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
I know that this is topic about new versions and since in newer version there is matrix mode, can you give me information how this stereo effect is different than ACR or stereo boost? Because sometimes I think it's reacting too much in terms of stereo picture. Thnx!

Author:	hvz [ Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:34 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Just posted BETA015. Biggest change is that priorities work in Linux now, which helps to get a stable output at higher CPU loads.

Author:	hvz [ Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:57 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Quote: I know that this is topic about new versions and since in newer version there is matrix mode, can you give me information how this stereo effect is different than ACR or stereo boost? Because sometimes I think it's reacting too much in terms of stereo picture. Thnx! Long story... Basically it comes down to "I was wrong about how good stereo widening works" - multiple times. Fortunately it's not only me working here anymore, and Mathijs figured out how to do it, which led to the _new_ matrix mode. (There's also an _old_ matrix mode which is less good). - Stereo Boost is the oldest and simplest stereo widener in Stereo Tool, it's basically just a 7-band multiband compressor on the L-R signal, which doesn't allow the L-R levels to exceed the L+R. It works but it can very easily boost reverb a lot (since reverb typically fades out and Stereo Boost will increase it when that happens). - ACR is kinda based on older 1980's designs, it adds the L-R signal with a delay to the audio, and mainly adjusts the amount of L-R to add on louder spikes and transients. The goal here was to avoid pulling up reverb too much. Unfortunately, because of the sudden jumps it can cause a bit of a "restless" sound, and we figured out recently that if you turn the delay OFF, it actually sounds much wider. The delay was needed in the past to avoid too strong stereo which interferes with FM reception, but even for FM we can live without it now because of Stokkemask. (You can turn that on to protect against reception issues caused by loud stereo sounds). What I understood wrong upto this point is that what gives the impression of loud stereo is not so much the constantly present difference in L vs R, but mainly the stereo effect in transients. Both Stereo Boost and ACR were actually boosting the rest of the stereo sound, and the transients least of all. Enter matrix mode. What it does is very slowly (at the speed of the AGC) adjusting the L-R level relative to the L+R level. Since it responds very slowly it boosts transients and other sounds equally. When you use it you should turn the other two OFF. If it does too much, "L+R to L-R channel mix" controls how much of the L+R signal is measured as part of the L-R channel - setting this higher reduces the effect, especially if there's not much L-R content in which case it would be boosting to insane levels. So, increasing that slider will reduce the effect mainly in cases where it's doing a lot.

Stereo Tool https://forums.stereotool.com/

Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA https://forums.stereotool.com/viewtopic.php?t=26540	Page 3 of 8

Author:	drbusy [ Wed Aug 21, 2019 3:19 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Quote: Quote: I know that this is topic about new versions and since in newer version there is matrix mode, can you give me information how this stereo effect is different than ACR or stereo boost? Because sometimes I think it's reacting too much in terms of stereo picture. Thnx! Long story... Basically it comes down to "I was wrong about how good stereo widening works" - multiple times. Fortunately it's not only me working here anymore, and Mathijs figured out how to do it, which led to the _new_ matrix mode. (There's also an _old_ matrix mode which is less good). - Stereo Boost is the oldest and simplest stereo widener in Stereo Tool, it's basically just a 7-band multiband compressor on the L-R signal, which doesn't allow the L-R levels to exceed the L+R. It works but it can very easily boost reverb a lot (since reverb typically fades out and Stereo Boost will increase it when that happens). - ACR is kinda based on older 1980's designs, it adds the L-R signal with a delay to the audio, and mainly adjusts the amount of L-R to add on louder spikes and transients. The goal here was to avoid pulling up reverb too much. Unfortunately, because of the sudden jumps it can cause a bit of a "restless" sound, and we figured out recently that if you turn the delay OFF, it actually sounds much wider. The delay was needed in the past to avoid too strong stereo which interferes with FM reception, but even for FM we can live without it now because of Stokkemask. (You can turn that on to protect against reception issues caused by loud stereo sounds). What I understood wrong upto this point is that what gives the impression of loud stereo is not so much the constantly present difference in L vs R, but mainly the stereo effect in transients. Both Stereo Boost and ACR were actually boosting the rest of the stereo sound, and the transients least of all. Enter matrix mode. What it does is very slowly (at the speed of the AGC) adjusting the L-R level relative to the L+R level. Since it responds very slowly it boosts transients and other sounds equally. When you use it you should turn the other two OFF. If it does too much, "L+R to L-R channel mix" controls how much of the L+R signal is measured as part of the L-R channel - setting this higher reduces the effect, especially if there's not much L-R content in which case it would be boosting to insane levels. So, increasing that slider will reduce the effect mainly in cases where it's doing a lot. Whoa! Thank you for explanation!

Author:	KevGP [ Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:00 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Hi, Is there a reason when looking at the News forum this thread is in, this thread is the 3rd one down or so? The first thread relates to StereoTool 9.32 while this is 9.35.

Author:	Modulator [ Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:03 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
This is not a sticky thread yet.

Author:	hvz [ Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:44 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
Quote: This is not a sticky thread yet. Sorry, just changed it. It is now.

Author:	hvz [ Fri Aug 30, 2019 10:54 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Stereo Tool 9.35 BETA
BETA019 is available! Biggest change: We've added an "L-R Reverb" stereo widener. This adds reverb to the (existing) L-R signal. So it typically doesn't add (much) reverb to vocals. Usage hint: Make the reverb last short. That way you don't drown the sound in excessive reverb. Lowering "Wall reflectiveness" makes it last shorter.

Page 3 of 8	All times are UTC+02:00
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Limited https://www.phpbb.com/