Stereo Tool

CPU load is now down to the same level as what Disperser uses. And I can improve it a bit further. There is a bug though which causes the phases to come out different - everything seems to be tilted by 90 degrees (I can't hear it but it's there and I want to fix it).

Anyway when this is finished the effect on the CPU load will be very small.

Current numbers for a 1:14 file:

1. Disperser: Running takes 3.14 seconds
2. Stereo Tool with filter: Running takes 5.18 seconds --> Whoops. Just saw that I had FM pre-emphasis, de-emphasis and lowpass filtering enabled as well. Will retest
3. Stereo Tool without filter: Running takes 4.06 seconds

So it's now already much smaller than the normal ST overhead.

For comparison, the version that I posted yesterday takes about 2 minutes to process the same signal on the same system.


Edit: O lol... I swapped the real and imaginary result of a complex multiplication. Testing if that was all... -> Yup it was. New build is running!

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 52-020.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 52-020.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 52-020.dll

CHANGES:
- Optimized Phase Equalizer (HUGE difference)

Warning: Don't use values in the Phase Equalizer below the center line. I've seen cases where this leads to very bad audio and even to complete disappearance of the sound. I will make it impossible to get below 0 in a future build.

TODO:
- Fix Phase Equalizer nonlinearity in highs if highs are flat
- Make unoptimized Phase Equalizer (FIR-based) available again in Extreme Tweaker mode for testing purposes. Something like "Use unoptimized version (for testing)". At least while I'm working on it...
- Added 2 sliders to control extra latency. 20%/50% settings seem to work find and give only 2 ms extra latency (vs. 12 at default settings, using the settings in the image I posted earlier).
- Fix Phase Equalizer GUI behavior (same display at different latencies etc.). And only in one direction (up = delay, no down!).
- Convert N-1->N etc. to actual band numbers.
- Move band coupling matrix to Expert mode? - Already done, now moved Norm checkbox to Extreme Tweaker mode
- Improve GUI in very high resolutions (2560x1920) -> Made bars 1/3rd of the height of the bottom, waveforms 2/3rds
- Added "Pull down only" checkbox in Multiband compressor (band coupling) for testing purposes. Expectedto give more consistency.
- Read all the posts about band coupling and decide what to do with it
- Add interface for media group I talked to at IBC for 50 FM and 50 web stations.
- Improve password protection. Prepare to later also support password protected presets (not now). Mail Henk M. Maybe disable for now.
- Crash in BETA014 stand alone http://i.imgur.com/Fpz7Jmr.png
- Add and update presets
- Change version number to 7.60 (since there's a new filter added).

LATER:
- Check Multiband settings Bojcha in Skype - ok, seen it, but what should I do with it?
- Check Multiband meters when using band coupling. Something is weird.
- Split limiters from coupling.
- Add External Pulse Response option

PREVIOUS:
- Save PNR data in normal INI file
- Fix Phase Equalizer: Insane bass effect: https://soundcloud.com/kilohearts/datas ... rser-demos
- GUI: Made CPU affinity more user friendly (pulldown and masks as backup)
- GUI: Split filters in Restoration / Processing.
- GUI: Display FM lowpass frequency at bottom when FM output is used.
- GUI: Made Configuration, Repair and Processing settings saveable separately.
- GUI: Strange jumps in waveform displays at 100 and 200 ms buffer size fixed.
- GUI: Hide panels in password protected mode or something Temporarily done, now waiting for feedback. *
- GUI: Reorganized Advanced Clipper ABDP panel.
- Performance: Optimized band coupling in MB compressor; ignoring bands with coupling < 0.5%.
- Bug fix: GUI: Fix crash when clicking on volume bars.
- Bug fix: Potential GUI crash at certain display sizes fixed.
- Bug fix: On program close, the parameters were removed before the HTTP server was switched off. This might cause an exception if the HTTP server is processing a request.
- Added PNR Noise & Hum filter that removes constant tones and reduces noise.
- ABDP: Added new "Sloppy" slider. Effect: Slightly louder, 0.5 dB more highs! And probably less pumping due to highs. (*)
- Multiband compressor: Added Band Coupling matrix which overrules the standard band coupling settings. Only available in Extreme Tweaker mode.
- Multiband compressor: Added band linking (different from already existing band coupling).
- Advanced Clipper: Advanced Bass Distortion Protection (ABDP): Drop in output when strongly clipping around 2600-4000 Hz is reduced.
- Advanced Clipper: ABDP: "Smooth Slide" slider added to make transition between deep bass (clipped) and less deep bass smoother. There used to be a drop upto the 2nd configured bass frequency, with this switch enabled the drop is smoothed (maximum at 1st configured bass freq, gone at 2nd). Result: Warmer, more open, less 'restrained' sound. But probably also a bit more intermodulation distortion. (which might be fixable by changing the frequencies in the preset a bit). (*)
- Advanced Clipper: ABDP: Added extra step that detects intermodulation distortion from bass in voices and reduces it.
- Advanced Clipper: Highs Gap Protection caused a jump in the spectrum between 3.5-3.8 kHz for loud highs. This is now smoothed over a bigger area (2400-4800 Hz).
- Advanced Clipper: Highs Gap Protection: Now stricter than before. Slightly more IMD distortion in the highs but also better protection against volume drops caused by loud highs.
- Re-recorded 'This sound is processed by Stereo Tool' sample which gets played when unregistered features are used.

Hans, new standalone version??? beta20 has a lot o exception errors.

_________________
Sexy Girls in your city

Have you set the Phase Equalizer below 0 (halfway)? That would cause all kinds of crashes. Fixed in the next build (tonight).

Edit: I see it also crashes on very high values. I hope the next version will be ok but I'm not sure.

hm...
Looks like "Yes Phase equalizer , yes problem - no phase equalizer , no problem"

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 52-021.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 52-021.exe
VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 52-021.dll

CHANGES:
- Fix Phase Equalizer nonlinearity in highs if highs are flat
- Make unoptimized Phase Equalizer (FIR-based) available again in Extreme Tweaker mode for testing purposes. Something like "Use unoptimized version (for testing)". At least while I'm working on it...
- Added 2 sliders to control extra latency. 20%/50% settings seem to work find and give only 2 ms extra latency (vs. 12 at default settings, using the settings in the image I posted earlier).
- Fix Phase Equalizer GUI behavior (same display at different latencies etc.). And only in one direction (up = delay, no down!).
- Convert N-1->N etc. to actual band numbers.
- Move band coupling matrix to Expert mode? - Already done, now moved Norm checkbox to Extreme Tweaker mode
- Improve GUI in very high resolutions (2560x1920) -> Made bars 1/3rd of the height of the bottom, waveforms 2/3rds
- Added "Pull down only" checkbox in Multiband compressor (band coupling) for testing purposes. Expectedto give more consistency.
- Crash in BETA014 stand alone http://i.imgur.com/Fpz7Jmr.png -> Crash was in Composite Clipper, but occurred in IPP. So, impossible to investigate. Same person had a similar crash a while ago which seemed to be caused by some overclocking problem, I'm assuming that it's something like that for now.

TODO:
- Web Interface - Selecting the "Repair" menu results in server crash.
- Web Interface - When selecting the number of bands in MB-Prelimiter results in different settings in st (web 512 -> st 16). The same problem in latency and in every drop down selection. --> Yup, I see now that I'm using numbers for each setting, and some pulldown menu's use numbers 0,1,2,3,.... They work fine. Others use different numbers and they are the ones that don't work. So I'm apparently mixing indexes with key values somewhere in the web interface. Should be simple to fix.
- Moved Phase Rotation to correct place in menu and bottom bar.
- Solved Phase Equalizer crashes (turned out I had allocated a too small buffer somewhere for the big range I'm supporting now), and in the new optimized code I was looping to twice the size of the buffer that I needed to loop through. Whoops!
- Add license check for PNR
- Improve password protection. Prepare to later also support password protected presets (not now). Mail Henk M. Maybe disable for now. -> Made it lock everything for now. More detailed control to be added later.
- Read all the posts about band coupling and decide what to do with it
- Add and update presets
- Change version number to 7.60 (since there's a new filter added).
- Add interface for media group I talked to at IBC for 50 FM and 50 web stations.

LATER:
- Make Phase Equalizer visible in bottom bar?
- Check Multiband settings Bojcha in Skype - ok, seen it, but what should I do with it?
- Check Multiband meters when using band coupling. Something is weird.
- Split limiters from coupling.
- Add External Pulse Response option

PREVIOUS:
- Save PNR data in normal INI file
- Fix Phase Equalizer: Insane bass effect: https://soundcloud.com/kilohearts/datas ... rser-demos
- Optimized Phase Equalizer.
- GUI: Made CPU affinity more user friendly (pulldown and masks as backup)
- GUI: Split filters in Restoration / Processing.
- GUI: Display FM lowpass frequency at bottom when FM output is used.
- GUI: Made Configuration, Repair and Processing settings saveable separately.
- GUI: Strange jumps in waveform displays at 100 and 200 ms buffer size fixed.
- GUI: Hide panels in password protected mode or something Temporarily done, now waiting for feedback. *
- GUI: Reorganized Advanced Clipper ABDP panel.
- Performance: Optimized band coupling in MB compressor; ignoring bands with coupling < 0.5%.
- Bug fix: GUI: Fix crash when clicking on volume bars.
- Bug fix: Potential GUI crash at certain display sizes fixed.
- Bug fix: On program close, the parameters were removed before the HTTP server was switched off. This might cause an exception if the HTTP server is processing a request.
- Added PNR Noise & Hum filter that removes constant tones and reduces noise.
- ABDP: Added new "Sloppy" slider. Effect: Slightly louder, 0.5 dB more highs! And probably less pumping due to highs. (*)
- Multiband compressor: Added Band Coupling matrix which overrules the standard band coupling settings. Only available in Extreme Tweaker mode.
- Multiband compressor: Added band linking (different from already existing band coupling).
- Advanced Clipper: Advanced Bass Distortion Protection (ABDP): Drop in output when strongly clipping around 2600-4000 Hz is reduced.
- Advanced Clipper: ABDP: "Smooth Slide" slider added to make transition between deep bass (clipped) and less deep bass smoother. There used to be a drop upto the 2nd configured bass frequency, with this switch enabled the drop is smoothed (maximum at 1st configured bass freq, gone at 2nd). Result: Warmer, more open, less 'restrained' sound. But probably also a bit more intermodulation distortion. (which might be fixable by changing the frequencies in the preset a bit). (*)
- Advanced Clipper: ABDP: Added extra step that detects intermodulation distortion from bass in voices and reduces it.
- Advanced Clipper: Highs Gap Protection caused a jump in the spectrum between 3.5-3.8 kHz for loud highs. This is now smoothed over a bigger area (2400-4800 Hz).
- Advanced Clipper: Highs Gap Protection: Now stricter than before. Slightly more IMD distortion in the highs but also better protection against volume drops caused by loud highs.
- Re-recorded 'This sound is processed by Stereo Tool' sample which gets played when unregistered features are used.

In the multiband section, is there any importance to the amount of gain in a band with regard to its release time? In other words, is the multiband compressor's release constant no matter how much gain it has? If so, it might be nice to provide a knee-like option to control the ramp up of speed. So if I give this new slider a value of "5". That means the release time will scale up to the actual setting up to 5dB. From there, it won't get any faster.

Hm. I don't really like what this does. Sounds less warm. But I'm curious what other people think... Depending on what you're trying to accomplish it might be better, idk.

Edit: Ow. Maybe I need to reconsider. Just tried 'Abba - Our Last Summer' with Bojcha's Unveil preset. This is a quite extreme track because it has almost no lows and very little highs (difference in bands on average is about 12 dB).

1. No coupling. "Phat" processed sound. Not too great, sounds 'fake'.
2. 100% coupling: Too much mids, no lows/highs (original sound!)
3. 50% coupling, no "Downward". Removes most of the "phat" sound, it does sound very warm because the mids are actually too loud (not reduced as much as they should to match other tracks)
4. 50% coupling, 'Downward". Less warm 'thinner' sound, but not 'Phat'.

This might be good! But.. the preset needs to be edited for it. Probably by using more feedback mode or less ratio.

Bugs found.
1) Web Interface - Selecting the "Repair" menu results in server crash.
2) Web Interface - When selecting the number of bands in MB-Prelimiter results in different settings in st (web 512 -> st 16)
3) Web Interface - the same problem in latency and in every drop down selection.

_________________
Very proud user of Stereo Tool since 2010. Thanks Hans.

My radio station
http://amradio.ddns.net

Finnally found some time for testing..error with phase shaping:

_________________
The Power of Sound

''Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.'' - Plato