Stereo Tool

The 273-digit registration code is in and ST is on the air! Here are a few followup things... First of all, I now have more overshoot than before which is due to the 1kw transmitter has a good built-in exciter. Also, it is 6' from the Stereo Tool computer, not feeding audio over an STL link. The exciter at the other end is a Harris Digit, BTW. Looks like I may have to put the Modulation Sciences Composite Clipper in line as a final "brick wall"... I could put the ST at the transmitter site, but I want to watch its behavior from close by for awhile.

Does anyone know what the Composite Clipping Strictness setting does? I'm also wondering what else under the Composite Clipper screen I might need (or want).

Any ideas/comments? I do like the sound I'm getting!

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We improve things by making them worse.

Composite clipper strictness: Set it lower if your CPU can't handle it; you'll loose some loudness (so the sound will be slightly less good).

At around 15 it's really good; higher isn't really much better anymore. With Hard Limit enabled it has no effect at peak levels - but the composite limiter will have to work harder if the peaks are less tightly controlled.

Putting ST as close as possible to the transmitter is of course always better......... Have you calibrated the tilt? If needed you can even use the old multiband correction filter, but that adds latency and for low frequencies artifacts.

Thanks. I had it at 19 but couldn't hear any improvement over where it was set initially (I'm thinking 15). So I turned it back down to 16.

On the CPU page, there are several things of interest. I have a really good computer so I'm not taking any shortcuts. The only slider that is enabled is the Composite Clipper Strictness, again set at 16. Do I need to worry about Strictness (at the top) or Stronger Clipping?

Also, where is the Compresser (not activated) in the processing chain?

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We improve things by making them worse.

Stronger clipping = to use more clipping (more loudness) when you use the composite clipper than when you don't. With this you can boost the level by about 2 dB - which is fine because you have far less artifacts with it.

Which compressor do you mean? There are a lot; basically all the processing steps happen in the order of the menu (or the bar at the bottom).

It is the last thing listed under AGC.

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We improve things by making them worse.

Directly after the AGC

Interesting. I don't see any meter indicating its action and I don't hear any difference...

Regarding the 2-3% overshoot I see occasionally I am going to try one of the M-Audio modifications. The first one will be on the output since I don't hear any issues with low end response. It sounds loud and very clean.

BTW, anyone who would like to discuss this, PM me and I'll give you a phone number to call.

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We improve things by making them worse.

I still would like to know the meaning of several things on the CPU submenu under Advanced Clipping... Also, what does the Flat Frequency Response slider do under the Multiband menu?

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We improve things by making them worse.

Never mind. I think I found the information.

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We improve things by making them worse.

Oversampled limiting and clipping means that the audio coming to the clipper will be limited and clipped while it's oversampled, which means that the signal going to the clipper is oversampled to higher samplerate (or to a higher bit depth, HELP?!). Anyway, it's there to make the clipping and limiting more accurate and better quality since the clipper will have more "space" to do it's magic.

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mayya