Stereo Tool

Is it intended in this preset that the way or speed it equalizes bass volume is noticeably slow? For example if you take the song "Oliver - Control (Nom De Strip Remix)" it has a powerful and punchy bass at the "chorus" when the beat kicks in at around 01:00. Right at the beginning of the beat with this preset the bass is loud for 1-2 seconds and then the preset turns the bass down quite a lot. It's a noticeably slow effect and I think it stands out.

Hm. That might be a bit too much. You can reduce the MB2 band 1 limiter, that reduces it a lot. I've just lowered it to 0 dB (which reduces this kick by about 3 dB compared to the preset, and doesn't seem to affect other sounds yet, based on a VERY short test). Beside that, we've worked on it a bit further as well since this release, you might want to try this: Bass clipper to 30% (-10.5 dB), slopes to 6 dB/oct instead of 12.

Hi Hans,

Thanks for answering my VST licensing question.
Version 8.54 displays properly in Audition. I will send you a screenshot of v9.
DPi is 100%. 1920x1080.
I play the file from Winamp into Audition via Virtual Cable and record. Winamp volume 100%, sample rates all the same at 44.1kHz. I thought the final clipper would take care of any overshoot?

It is MP4 audio though so probably different decoders used in Audition compared with Winamp. Winamp EQ is disabled. The Winamp decoder seems to have more stereo image/depth, compared to Audition's decoder. Google Uni suggests it's using the QuickTime version of the decoder. Can you recommend a best decoder for MPEG audio, and how one might get Audition to use it? Rename a DLL to match Audition's decoder? libmpg123?
If changing the Audition decoder isn't possible, I'll give this a go. Thanks

Ow. Then it must be something completely different. I have just increased the VST window size... maybe it stored the size from before, or there is some other issue. I'll know more when I see the screenshot. Maybe I just need to force the size to never be smaller than my default - you could then still make it bigger in programs that support resizing, but not smaller (which doesn't appear to work well anyway, so that's probably not going to make any difference). I'll know when I see the screenshot, if it's this, I'll run a new build tonight for you to test.
Yes. If you don't see overshoots in the Stereo Tool display in Winamp but you do in the recorded audio, then there must be some resampling taking place somewhere. Have you set Virtual Audio Cable to 44.1 in the Windows driver settings? If not it might be running at 48 or some other sample rate, and Windows will still resample - twice even!
I have never tested decoders, all I know from experience is that there once was an MP3Pro decoder that you could load in Winamp - and shortly after doing that I started to notice that every MP3, regardless of the bitrate, sounded bad. At some point I uninstalled the MP3Pro decoder and it sounded good again.

I don't think there's an easy way to replace the Audition decoder - it MIGHT be using what's installed in Windows but I don't know.

Weirdly, the cable is set to auto range 22k-48k but seems to be operating at 48k even though the source material from Winamp is 44k, I also checked the file info to be sure it is 44k. I wonder what's causing that?

That must be the default that's set in Windows. So right click on the speaker icon in the system tray, open Playback devices, pick the VAC cable that you need, right click and go to Properties -> Advanced, there set it to 44.1. Do the same for the recording end.

Note: I don't know which of the two - or both - is using MME, my guess would be Winamp, in that case, you only need to change the playback setting. But, let's do both just to be sure.

Yep, that was it, windows audio settings gets me once again, my nemesis.

No more overshoots

Thanks Hans!

There is a problem I wanted to talk about for a long time.
I use the 64-bit version. When I disable the "pre-limiter", then when I go on another module, and I want to reactivate the "pre-limit", it disappears.
Another thing, is it possible in "phase delay" to increase the delay to more than 60 milliseconds? I would like to reproduce the typical sound of a French brand.
For example to be able to put a delay of 80 to 100 milliseconds on certain frequencies.

Thank you

Ah, that's actually on purpose. Pre-limiter is deprecated and should really not be needed anymore - what are you using it for? In the past, certain sounds could cause audible drops in the clipper, that's no longer the case - and the pre-limiter was there to protect against this.
I *think* that if you just edit the values in the .sts file, it will do it. Upto a point though - if you go too far sounds will just disappear completely.

Thanks a lot Hans, this method works perfectly.
Where is placed the "phase delay" in the chain? Because in the "phase rotation" section there was an option to place it at the beginning of the process.

I use the pre limiter because it was already activated on my basic preset. If I disable my sound has more punch, but also a lot of distortion. I will work on the clipper anyway to correct this.