Stereo Tool

I've been looking at my preset development efforts through Breakaway RTA over the past several days, and can see activity at 20K+ from time to time, despite having a low-pass of 18K. Even backing that down to 17K for the low-pass has still not resolved it. Other presets are affected as well. The track I'm using is Vivo Feat. Orel - "Feel".

Edit: It's not caused by loudness. I just disabled loudness and cranked the final limiter up and still see it. So, I have to ask again, are you sure the phase-linear bandpass (both high and low) is as steep as it should be?

maybe it's better to record it and analyze the files in a program like adobe audition.

I always analyse the output in Cool Edit (= Adobe Audition) and it always shows a VERY steep drop to below -90 dB within a few hundred Hz.

So please try what Eldoradofm suggested. Also check that your 'post amp' is not set higher than 1.00 and that Hard Limit is enabled. (If you have overshoots you'll get this type of behavior).

How would you propose recording? Is the Nullsoft writer good enough, or do I need to break out some other program that I may or may not have?

Further, I do not have Cool Edit, and my understanding is the trial of AA is crippled.

Post amp is set for x0.95 and Hard Limit is enabled, and the preset is publicly available. I can work around it using band changes and clipping...

Edit: Tinkering with it, volume increases in the Wave slider impact RTA, while volume increases through the Master Volume do not. This means it could be an RTA issue OR an issue with StereoTool that you would not notice if you use Master Volume and hold the Wave level back.

My question is if it is thought that the bandpass is steep enough. If it is felt that it is, then I'll continue with plans on addressing through band changes and clipping.

Ok, I will try this
I will analyze the output with an audio editor, but my question is because it is in the blue some effect, even putting it a value too low to act.

_________________
by GAP
"Less is More" (Bob Katz)

@gpagliori: These were answers to Brian!

@Brian: I think you should start with looking elsewhere, any analysis that I ever did showed very steep filtering (and it has to, otherwise the RDS signal would be damaged).

Adobe Audition wanted me to create an Adobe ID and approve advertising mails / information release, so I found a trial edition download of Cool Edit Pro 2.1 on Softpedia.

I'll buy that the high frequency stuff that I'm seeing out of RTA is a bug with RTA, but the high-pass filter in Stereo Tool simply doesn't do enough. Using that same track (Feel), viewed in Cool Edit Pro, on the unprocessed file, the frequency analysis shows the low end (21.53 Hz) as slightly quieter than the processed track with a high-pass at 35 Hz.

Where I'm going with all this is I'm trying to reduce the RMS power, and am having a very difficult time doing so and still keeping a good sound. I thought the top end was robbing some of the power I could give to the mids, but that appears to be some sort of bug with RTA. The bottom end though, I'm using something different, and supposedly non-buggy, and am not seeing a benefit of the high-pass setting. Will continue tinkering...

Try the non-phase linear highpass filter, that's much steeper. Especially at a high order.

(good idea btw, I'll check the BS412 preset that I used for testing to see what is selected there!)

I get the same result from either one. 8th order, both boxes checked, or phase linear. Makes no difference. In fact, TT-DR Offline claims the output file is 0.1 dB louder using NPL.

maybe the problem is not having overshoots ...

_________________
by GAP
"Less is More" (Bob Katz)