Stereo Tool

Beside other, "Dynamic Booster" can really have bad impact to "SingleBand Compressor/Rms-AGC (when used), especially with drums...

Yes, I indicate to wideband compressor there. (side-chained eq)


edit:
Loaded latest beta...
De-Clipper seems to be very good now. I am thinking on audio where de-Clipping is not needed - Like Jack is Back track.
And seems it actually good on different input levels. Testing with default settings.

Now this is funny! Isn't that i said few days ago? Ok, maybe just in different way.

Actually, you can do this with altered OS. CyanogenMod, the most popular for Android, is one good example. It adds several things to the system's audio layer, like an EQ.

That being said, a mobile platform like Android really needs something written from scratch, to be compatible with the various CPUs Android can run on, and also to consider power use... to keep that to a minimum so that battery life isn't "too impacted" by the process.

Have you tried this?
- Alejandro
- Expected input level at around 100 000
- Strength set to x 3.00

About the Omnia 9: If I listen to it without processing afterwards (the examples on the Breakaway site that someone linked to earlier), they sound 'unnatural'. I have tried to avoid that in my filter, and I think both filters do different things (based on what I hear on the Omnia 9, I think it boosts only the start of a loud sound, while Stereo Tool boosts *all* loud sounds, also if they last longer).

Anyway, try playing a bit with the 'strength' slider. And keep in mind that I want to make the behavior configurable separately per band - so loud voices can be treated differently from loud bass and hi-hats.

For the AGC: My impression so far is that only loud mids are really causing issues with it, the bass and highs don't seem to have much effect (for bass that makes sense, as it is treated differently anyway; highs are usually not that loud in comparison so that makes sense as well).

This is just an idea, but *maybe* the AGC should use the bass and highs from the boosted signal, but the mids from the original. Or, alternatively, no - or little - boost should be performed on the mids. Or only soft mids must be boosted.

If in tracks like Alejandro with Strength=3 the bass kicks and hi-hats are increased by a factor 3, I really need the AGC to catch this, otherwise the level that goes into Multiband will suddenly be *much* louder. And then the RMS output level will not be constant.

Ow, and I *need* to perform the dynamics boost on the audio BEFORE running it through the AGC to avoid the adverse effect of giving an *extra* boost to sudden loud spikes if the AGC doesn't catch it perfectly.


I'll add separate configuration settings per frequency band, to see what's possible with that. If that doesn't suffice, then maybe using the mid frequencies from the original (not boosted) signal in the AGC level calculation might do the trick.

I`m gone try the new beta this week, but i`m glad that the Omnia sound is not the same as stereo tool, most important is the naturel sound of a record. en then a litle bitt louder, is mine opinon, thats necesary for radio broadcasting. otherwise the distance of youre station turn down.

Yes please add AGC START level and a configurable HOLD level for when the music suddenly drops, so the AGC holds it's current position.
And when the music stays below this hold level a configurable TIME to go slowly back to the AGC START level.

the density & peak levels only effect distance for AM. not FM. just to make sure that's clear with your understanding.

Offcourse is it necassery for AM, But ive you turn a small en loud signal in the transmitter for FM. the qualitate will be better.
the distance will be the same, its only better qualitate. (sorry the english language is not mine daily language)

"Windowing".

This is what I was trying to explain before. Thanks, hvz!

BETA049:
- I've added some sliders so now you can configure the 'Natural Dynamics' behavior per frequency band. The top set of sliders control the expected output level per band (leave them unchanged to have the same behavior as before; higher value = filter kicks in later, lower value = sooner). The 2nd set of sliders is new, they allow limiting the maximum boost for each band. Since mid frequencies usually don't need a big boost, and mostly get big boosts when very loud vocals are present, I think the best setting is to keep these sliders lower for the mid frequencies.
- Transients issue is fixed.

From the previous beta (still valid):
The CPU load is also pretty high because I'm calculating 32 different tilt levels to find the best match (so automatic tilt detection works, but it needs serious optimization).

New slider: "Declipping margin" - if you set this to 75%, everything above 75% of the maximum level is considered to be potentially clipped.

Changed slider: "Never consider samples to be clipped if they are lower than:" - rule out soft sounds, whatever they look like, they are not clipped.


Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 20-049.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 20-049.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 20-049.dll
VST version (No SSE2): http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 20-049.dll
Command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 20-049.exe
Linux command line version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... ETA620-049 NOT AVAILABLE
Linux GUI version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... ETA620-049 NOT AVAILABLE

TODO:
- Fix loading changed multiband frequencies
- Add buffer and filter for SCA output (SCA1 ok, SCA2 ok)
- Finish AGC improvement - make mono value configurable (replace checkbox by slider) 1 hour --> NO, not needed - anything else needed? -> NO
- Fix Punch
- Check what to do with new filters (such as bass AGC) - keep them, remove them, change them? --> KEEP
- Save new BASS_AGC setting in VST mode
- Loudness: Annoying cracking sound in bass. Slightly present in 5.00, worse in 6.00, maybe even worse in 6.10. Only when bass is too loud. Much worse than in Final Limiter (at same input level!) - so this clearly indicates a bug. Most likely cause: The filter that was added to remove bass artifacts....... - No, it's the louder bass. But it can be fixed by changing some settings. Default settings updated, and behavior for 'not Very strict' improved. Also Deep bass boost and Very deep bass protection are enabled for latency 512 now.
- Fix crash at program close
- Fix VST plugin version (does not run)
- Dynamically drop 'Allow louder highs, even if it causes vibrations' to 0 when bass filter suspects noticeable voice vibrations. 1-2 hours
- Reduce Loudness CPU load days?
- Check and remove static variables
- Finish new de-essing filter (check what to do with the settings, remove at least some!) 1 day
- Convert Multiband input to MONO, then use arrays [2][4096] --> should give speedup. - FAILED
- RDS issue reported here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3703&p=11524#p11524
- Always oversample clipping (configurable)
- Natural Dynamics: Fix or remove transient boost
- Natural Dynamics: Smooth out different bands more to reduce low-bitrate-MP3-like sounds.
- Natural Dynamics: Add expected + strength slider per band
- Declipping filter: Change detection at lower input levels.
- Finish declipping filter (clipping level detection + level reduction in dB). 1. Figure out why removal of unwanted frequencies causes flat lines at high quality setting with small overlap. This causes distortion, with this fixed repairs are MUCH better. 2. Implement MP3 correction, automatically scale down when this deteriorates the sound.
- Update presets? (BASS_AGC etc.) 1 day
- Finish blind interface
- Add AGC start level
- "Test Right Channel" in "FM Transmitter Calibration" does not work since v6.10 (standalone) (bojcha)
- Channels L/R swap in stand alone version when changing filtering/quality (?) (eldoradofm)
- Move pre-emphasis to end of processing 1 day
- Change version number 1 hour
- Release 1 hour
- Add lowpass filter for stereo signal (will cause a lot of extra latency!) - it might be possible to avoid this latency using a Hilbert transform
- Add smarter clipping detection. Maybe something much simpler suffices: Current clipping detection with threshold + flat line detection