Stereo Tool

Ah... Ok, for the 'highs gap' I could use more stages (my old method used 16, new one uses 2). Leif and I both listened to some problematic tracks and we didn't hear a difference there, but I didn't do what I normally do (record the output and measure the difference) - I guess I should have...

For the new composite, same thing: We listened to some tracks and with some tricks that we used in an earlier attempt I thought it sounded worse (but it was difficult to hear and Leif thought it might be placebo), but I turned those things off! Hm... except in the final stage (!) which shouldn't do much but it still might... Can you tell me as precisely as possible what you hear? Is it more distortion? Or slightly less good peak control before Hard Limit? Or something else? (And, most importantly, does it also happen if you set the Quality slider higher?).

Cant hear/see any difference between 8 and 10. There difference is really small. I would even leave it like that. What i might hear is more highs ducking. That might also mean that i should look at "distortion" section and retune there... idk for now.
Thing is that i know from erlier, no filter will allow me highs go more into distortion then ducking.

More bother me this 'highs gap'. It really ducking volume more on Loud "S" sounds. You know 'Mina' track? Also that jingle in "processing_testfiles" starting at 03:30.

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Hm, let's see if I read this correctly - between 8 and 10, does that mean no difference between setting 8 and setting 10, or no difference between those settings and the old clipper method? More highs ducking might indeed be possible with this (more aggressive) method.
I will add more stages and measure it. And also compare the effect of the old and new clipper methods.


Edit 1: Confirmed: New optimized clipper method does cause about 0.2 dB more highs ducking in that Costa jingle.
-> Ok, new method has slightly less bass/mids and slightly more highs. Not sure what to think of it, it should also mean less distortion... Probably fixing the Highs Gap protection is enough to solve the issue here.

Edit 2: Woeha! That effect (Highs Gap vs. new protection) is HUGE! In this Costa sample even 1.7 dB.
Something very strange is going on...

Yea no big difference.
Yes, pretty obvious. That's why i'm more concern about that.

Btw. only filter that allows less volume ducking caused by highs is dirty-mids and dirty-highs.. but i am avoiding to use that for other reasons.

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Something isn't working as it should; I haven't figured out what it is yet. Adding more stages has nearly no effect at all, something else must be wrong:
1. Not filtering all sizes for rep<0
2. Fewer stages
3. 1.1 instead of 1.0 (responsible for about 1 dB extra drop!)

I have found most of the cause (drop is now reduced from 1.7 to 0.7 dB). Will continue searching for the rest...

That's great

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Stereo Tool 7.71 BETA006

I think the New Highs Gap Protection is working as it should now; I've measured some gaps with both the old and the new version and they are now nearly identical. There's a new slider (Highs/Bass Threshold) which controls when the gaps protection kicks in; set it lower for more effect (but also some loss in highs).

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 71-006.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 71-006.exe
Windows VST 32 bit: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 71-006.dll

There are some big changes in the Composite Clipper in this version. The sound should be the same as before (within 0.02 dB or so). CPU load is much lower though. Please be careful with using this version for anything else than testing until proper functioning has been confirmed.

Note: If you want to use the new composite clipper CPU load optimization with Stokkemask, for now you should set the Stokkemask Quality slider to 3 (I still need to fix that).

CHANGES:
- New Highs Gap Protection improved, now similar in behavior to the old one. I had to add 1 extra step (slightly higher CPU load).

OLD CHANGES:
- Fixed problems in 771-004. Some optimizations are disabled - I need to fix that.
- Fix CPU measurement for high loads (jumps to 95% for unknown reason). -> Showing real average instead of median now. Median in dark red.
- Difference in measured CPU load is bigger than expected after CPU load measurement update - check why - DONE, is indeed big! Separate slider added to show both processing and total CPU usage.
- CPU: Clipper: Reduced default number of Bass Clipper steps from 4 to 1
- CPU: Clipper: Implemented Leif's mirrorring method for Stokkemask and optimized steps using Omnia interface, much fewer steps for same result.
- Added option to add a text in the title bar to easily recognize multiple instances.
- EXCEPTION OCCURRED IN HttpServer: Got unknown widget ID.
- CPU: Clipper: Highs gap protection: Use 1 step for non-FM.
- Check if COMMON_STATIC still improves performance, if not remove it -> Does not, removed.
- Redesigned parameter classes and moved everything around for integration with other products.
- Remove Stokkemask mode for non-composite FM clipper (it's probably not working correctly and more heavy than the composite clipper)
- Fixed small bug in Composite clipper FM overhead level compensation calculation. Might make the same setting very marginally louder (less than 0.05 dB)
- Fix crash reported in previous post
- Improved CPU load measurement (small part of code wasn't included, it is now).
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Skipping outer parts of window
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Fixed 'Skip smoothing' mode to be compliant, all other modes removed.
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Highs Gap Protection (trick from Leif Claesson that he uses in the Omnia.9 - nearly no CPU load needed anymore!)
- CPU: Added some #pragma's to make compiler generate more efficient code
- RDS: Added some character conversions (Euro -> E, ` -> '). (not yet tested)
- GUI: Allow drawing scopes in half-height to have more headroom above and below.

TODO 7.71:
- Fix optimizations
- Fix MPX display sample rate issue
- Fix code #warnings
- Fix Stokkemask in Leif's mode with Quality < 3
- Add downsampling to 38 kHz!
- VST multiple instances fails
- Make VST window bigger
- Fix Mac VST version (not recognized apparently)
- Fix Linux version (someone mentioned that it crashes after a few minutes, on Ubuntu 14.04)
- Instability in compressor behavior [WesKeene, Bojcha]

TODO:
- Noise learning Micha
- Change default preset (it still uses Classic compressor etc!)
- EQ with 'standard' sliders.
- Make BS412-like graph for levels
- Add 'warm' noise before clipper (requested by Andrew Palmquist, might help with PPM as well)
- CPU: Clipper: Optimize Advanced Bass Distortion Protection

TO DO WITH LEIF:
- Clipper issues Leif / Wolf Stahl (probably the same thing)

Yes, highs gap seems better now. I keep that slider at 300 and Composite Strict at 9. Sound seems fine and at some point kinda nicer.
What's with Stokke? It seems to work just fine at "2" ?

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There is a sample rate bug. The sample rate of the FFT is stuck in 48khz mode. Restarting st fixes the problem but it switches back to 48khz by itself after a while.

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

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

Saw that in beta5 but not in beta6. Now i see bug in MPX power meter.

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