Stereo Tool

It's me again.
I don't want to spit in the version 4.00 release party soup,
because of Hans hard work and the final high audio quality.

But ...
I checked the final Beta (721.539 bytes) and it graphics again.
Ok, there is no more flickering inside the preset dialogue screen area ....,
except until I move the mouse pointer inside this area (menu selection).
The intensity of this flickering is much lower than in the other Beta versions,
but it's still there (mouse pointer movements inside the preset area).

But it is much better, less annoying than before.
I don't care a fig for this minimal flickering when I select a preset,
because I won't do it every other minute.

Another:
But ...
Try this:
Use for example the classic Winamp skin (default version 2.xy).
Disable snapping.
Then drag the the Winamp EQ window with the mouse (important: without the main Winamp player window -> snapping off) and move it up and down and left and right infront of the Stereo Tool 4.00 (final Beta) window.

Do you see what I can see (ATI and NVIDIA users ?) ?

I tried different Catalysts versions (9er and 8er), but this overkill of flickering
is always there.

Then I have compared the differences between Stereo Tool 4.00 (final Beta), release version 3.55 and release version 3.40 when you drag and move the EQ window (same with the playlist) infront of the Stereo Tool window.

It's obvious that this flickering was introduced with the new (MS independant) graphic elements:

1. with version 3.40 there is absolute no flickering

2. with version 3.55 it is only the oscilloscope area.

3. with version 4.00 (final Beta) it is the whole Stereo Tool window.

My conclusion:
The implementation of the new graphic elements is not "perfect".
Maybe something to change with the next version 4.1 !

But besides that,
Stereo Tool is an audio tool and not a tool for graphics !

Overall:
Version 4.00 is fantastic, thank you Hans !

?

it's still 3.55
i am curious what will be the loudness position for FM Europe stereo preset.


oh... again FF cache...
i see it now.. 2.70.

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control point
control point2

Yeah... I wanted to increase it slightly, but I didn't want it to have less quality than in version 3.55. So I only increased it slightly.

yeah i noticed to.. i might change it a bit again... for now it's ok..

/Martijn

VERY minor change.

When listening to the sound for very high Loudness values (> 3.0), the low frequencies were softer than in version 3.55. Now that makes sense, because there's A LOT less high frequency distortion caused by low frequencies than in version 3.55.

Still, this problem was bugging me, and I found something that slightly improves things.

I have changed the distortion filter such that it now doesn't only reduce the very low frequencies (0-150 Hz) anymore, but it spreads the effect over the frequencies up to about 600 Hz. And in some cases I could determine that there would be no distortion after all, so the filter is also a bit less aggressive.

I will have to release a new version anyway because I received a report that the VST plugins don't work - so I'm planning to include this new filtering in version 4.01 also.

The new processing is available in the beta's below, and will be available in a regular release as soon as I have solved the VST problem.

Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... r_BETA.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... r_BETA.exe

Bass level is on average about 0.15 dB higher (but on peaks with very loud "S" sounds it can be up to 1 dB louder), highs are about 0.02 dB softer. Seems like a good trade...

i think ther is a bit more "S" distortion.. but still acceptably.. must listen more.

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control point
control point2

I have a version now that still has a slightly higher bass level, but the distortion seems to be lower than in version 4.00. Building now, so I'll upload it in about 40 minutes.

Change: I have slightly lowered the threshold from which Stereo Tool thinks that you can hear the distortion.

i just looked .. there is big difference in filesize too?

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control point
control point2

It's not there yet - am uploading now.

There's a big difference in file size because my harddisk is full - I haven't included the non-SSE2 version...

Edit: It's online now.

Change: I have slightly lowered the threshold from which Stereo Tool thinks that you can hear the distortion, by about 0.3 dB. The lows are still about 0.1 dB louder than in version 4.00, highs are now 0.01 dB softer.

I know that no-one will ever notice such small differences, but I doubt that there are any big steps left - and a lot of such small differences combined still make a big difference. (And if the distortion level is indeed lower than before, someone might notice that...).