Stereo Tool

Under StereoTool v2, I used the single band compressor/limiter stage as part of a preset that compressed volume to an even level without altering the bass/mid/treble mix. I don't like having to manually alter volume levels with Winamp on shuffle playback but I don't want my entire playlist to have the same homogeneous sound, either.

Unfortunately, ST v3 doesn't appear to have a single band compressor.

Is there any way to compress (level) volume only with ST v3 without normalizing the spectral power distribution (bass/treble mix) as well?

Not right now (I didn't have any room left to add the singleband compressor.....) - but I'm working on a new version with a much better interface - so I'll include the singleband compressor again. (I've just put it on my todo list).

For now, you could use Hard Limit instead - just make sure that the volume you put into it isn't too high. Hard Limit also limits using one band, but it looks ahead - which might or might not be what you want.

Ok, I now have a version which contains two different single band compressors so you can even choose now!

Winamp DSP plugin: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... _BETA2.exe
Stand alone version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... _BETA2.exe
Command line: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... _BETA2.exe
VST version: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... _BETA2.dll

Go to the "Limiting & Loudness" window. There you'll find 2 things:
1. At the bottom, there's the old singleband compressor. I've tried it, and my opinion is that it sounds horrible......
2. At the top, there are a lot of new features in the Final Limiter.
You can choose to select "Do not preserve loudness" - then it behaves as a singleband compressor - but one that gives a much better sound quality than the original singleband compressor (at least that's my opinion).

Please let me know what you think - unless I get feedback that someone REALLY wants to have the original singleband compressor I'll remove it again... The stuff in the Final limiter panel will remain.

(By the way, this filter is identical to the Final Limiter in version 3.40, but without the Final Pre Limiter, and without timing settings... So maybe I should add those. But I'm waiting for a response first...)

IMPORTANT WARNING:
This version is NOT yet finished, and the Do not preserve loudness and Avoid distortion settings are NOT saved when you close Stereo Tool. So you'll need to set them every time you start Stereo Tool. I'll fix that before releasing this version, but right now I'm adding a lot of features and I'm going to add all the saving stuff at the end (I might still decide to add or remove features while I'm still working on it).

After doing some testing myself, I found out that if I don't use the single band compressor/limiter for limiting, but only to boost softer sounds (in other words: using a low value for down speed/decay), the singleband compressor might be useful after all.

Here's how to use it:
- Set "Down spd div (decay)" to a low value (I'm going to change the default to .004)
- Turn "Final limiter" on, and enable "Avoid distortion". (If you're not interested in the output volume, use "Do not preserve loudness" instead and lower the volume slider).
- If you're using Loudness, or if you're NOT using "Do not preserve loudness", make sure that "HARD LIMIT" is enabled (or lower the global output volume a bit to around 0.90).

Why:
- The single band compressor/limiter responds slowly to loud peaks, so some peaks will still be present in the signal
- The Final Limiter removes these peaks. Just make sure that you don't send a too loud input volume into it, otherwise you'll get pumping sounds - which sound even worse because the final limiter uses a look-ahead filter).