Stereo Tool

CHANGES:
- Added multiband pre-limiter/phase optimizer to the Advanced Clipper.

Multiple things were wrong in this version. I will fix them first.

The new Pre Limiter protects against tones that are too loud and will never pass the clipper anyway. Without it, the clipper can sometimes sound a bit like a singleband compressor (pumping, loud instruments push other sounds down). With this new pre-limiter enabled, it does that a lot less, and it also protects against (mainly intermodulation) distortion.

I had originally intended to let this replace Advanced Bass Distortion Protection, but it's not strong enough for that unfortunately.


TODO: I forgot to add Bass Shape to the pre-limiter. So it won't let enough bass through in some cases.

Waiting for beta testing.

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

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

New attempt:

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 51-004.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 51-004.exe

CHANGES:
- Added multiband pre-limiter/phase optimizer to the Advanced Clipper.

Note: The pre-limiter does not replace Advanced Bass Distortion Protection (that was originally the intention, but it doesn't work well enough to replace it, unfortunately). Note that with the huge number of bands used, using too much limiting tends to sound a bit like clipping, so use with care. There are multiple ways to use this new feature:
1. If you want to have a limited instead of clipped sound, lower the limiter levels a lot (for example to 50%), but ALSO lower the clipper drive a lot to avoid using very aggressive limiting combined with clipping.
2. If you want to have a clipped sound which sounds more 'consistent' (loud voices don't push other sounds down etc.), lower the limiter levels to around 80-90%. It also still has an effect at 100% but that effect is very very small unless you use a very high clipper drive. (If you do, it still improves the sound a lot at 100%).

I still have to test if results are better if you use different values for the 2 limiter level sliders...

Using lower limiting levels lowers the loudest sounds in the mix. Since bass is often the loudest sound it tends to reduce bass more than other sounds. Also, if you use pre-emphasis, esp. at 75 us for US FM, you might get slightly more holes pushed in the audio by loud highs (in BETA001 it was quite horrible, now the difference between with/without limiter is very small). I will look into that soon.

Whats with the low number of bands? Sounds very garbled to me. 1k and 2k are the only ones that produce normal sound.

Should be between 32 and 256.

I'm working on a completely new design now that should sound more natural and cause far less bad effects. But I'm not 100% sure yet if that change is a good idea - I will post a new beta as soon as possible...

It shouldn't sound garbled though...

If you can hear the limiter working more than a tiny bit only rarely, then you're doing it wrong. Read some Vorsis documentation about setting up their 31 band limiter.

Am busy with a very different design now - and it's far less noticeable. And what I hear are improvements to the sound (very or actually too loud sounds get removed), if I limit at a low level.

TODO: Fix limiter different timings for different frequencies
TODO: Fix GUI (click on DC, then on freq range, hold and move up)
TODO: Add different limiting levels for different bands
TODO: Fix sound at lower number of bands.

My comment was directed to people adjusting the limiter, not to you Hans. Glad you're improving things tho. I haven't heard it myself yet.