Stereo Tool

Hm, it seems that the Quality slider is completely broken now. Will fix that first.

You see some relationship between my report and Quality slider (because i`m not touching it) ? Or this is separate problem ?

If you're not touching it, it must be a separate problem. But I don't see the problem that you are reporting. It was there in BETA017 - but as far as I know I fixed it in 018. And, if I run some audio through it and analyse the output, I see no clicks at all (as long as Quality is set to 100%) - and I have tested 16000 Hz.

Edit: Ah, now I do see a noise floor at 16 kHz. Checking further...
Edit: And indeed gone at 16130. Ok. Good. At least I'm seeing it here too now.
Edit: Ah, and this is why I didn't see it before: At sample rate 192/48 kHz it doesn't happen, only at 176.4/44.1 kHz.
Edit: Fixed it! Was a rounding error in an optimization of the stereo pilot generation.

Ok , from now i will know to report at what sample rate i am.

Between - from where you change the output ( 176.4, 192 etc) ? Or this is like "service menu" only on your side ?
i think in the new audio engine it`s good to have that option to change the output sample rate . I think with 128000 program will still do it`s work (last allowed frequency is 64Khz but RDS finishes at 60) and .... yeah CPU load will be less.

@DJ_DOGGY: Guess what "Ignore frequencies above" does
Output depends on input (input 44.1 or 176.4 -> output 176.4; input 48 or 192 -> output 192).

Anyway, the bug was a rounding error, switching from floats to doubles (more precise) fixed it.

oooo I think i see now . It sounds like 1:4 . 44.1 * 4 = 176.4 , 48*4 = 192.
Yeah , was a stupid question but i just not realize it.

And for the fix - i`m glad you found it.

Stereo Tool 7.71 BETA020

Windows 32 bit:
Windows stand alone: http://www.stereotool.com/download/ster ... 71-020.exe
Winamp DSP: http://www.stereotool.com/download/dsp_ ... 71-020.exe
Windows 32 bit VST: http://www.stereotool.com/download/vst_ ... 71-020.dll

CHANGES:
- Change tone generation FM enable/disable and order.
- VST multiple instances fails - Tested and works fine. Ignoring unless I'm receiving a better report. Note: 32 bit too many instances can crash due to the 2 GB limit. Max number is now 3, used to be 6 so some optimization could be useful.
- Make VST window bigger
- Fixed Quality slider bug introduced in previous beta
- Fixed jumping pilot and RDS effect on some 'Ignore frequencies above' frequencies.

OLD CHANGES:
- Sometimes the top and bottom waveforms run at different speeds when Ignore Frequencies Above is enabled.
- Make Chain block (small size) based - Partially done
- Declipper display is broken. Even without Ignore Frequencies Above. Ok upto 100 ms. Also broken in 7.70!!! Only if samplerate > 48 kHz, and when switching between sizes, upto 100 ms everything is fine (even if no audio is playing so no refresh of the data occurs), so the bug is in the displaying code. -> Was a shift error, fixed.
- Turning "Bandpass" Highpass filter OFF doesn't really turn it off (!)
- Again, fixed noise level jumps and spike at Ignore Frequencies Above frequency.
- Clipper issues Leif / Wolf Stahl (probably the same thing) - Should be fixed now. - Waiting for reply Wolf- Check new clipper highs
- Remove "Take some shortcuts" under CPU, probably broken! And has not much effect anyway. -> Hm, no, must have been in use for the tests. Ugh... TEST to check what is better: ON (which will probably allow more sounds through) or OFF. -> Actually it does seem to work AND allow more highs through, but I don't know if that's a good thing - more tests needed!
- Added lowpass filter after clipper in non-composite mode.
- Another bug in latest beta - ST doesn't remember FM settings - presets from the fm list start up with stereo and rds encoding off
- Fix MPX display sample rate issue
- Fix Stokkemask in Leif's mode with Quality < 3
- Fixed problem with click sounds (reported by DJ_DOGGY). Reduced output level by 1% - you can safely increase modulation by 1% if you're using an output that's affected by this (should only be FM signal inside a plugin). If you're using the stand alone version, make sure to set the output level to the sound card no higher than 99% (-0.1 dB).
- Fix downsampling and Quality slider problems: Lower Quality setting
- Attempt to reduce effect on volume of using Leif's clipping method.
- Fix DJ Doggy's reported errors (19 kHz, junk around tones).
- Ignore frequencies above a specific frequency -> Should lower TOTAL CPU load by another 10-20% (now fully implemented except at lower Quality settings)
- Fixed the lowpass bug that was introduced in 009. Although it has probably always been there! As a side effect, the output is also slightly louder (about 0.02 dB) with no negative effects.
- Fixed distortion introduced in 009/010. Extra highs are still there though! See new 'Sparkling highs' section under Advanced Clipper -> Sound
- Fix optimizations
- Fix code #warnings
- Improved highs filtering in Clipper (both Composite and Normal); sound has more brilliance and suffers much less from ducking on loud sounds.
- Fix bug: NAN's can occur at certain input sample rates (40960 Hz among others)
- Fixed downsampling/resampling issues.
- Made several changes to the Clipper that affect the sound! Sound should now be more open en brighter (but it might have more distortion in some cases, I hope not though).
- CPU: Added 'Ignore high frequencies above'.
- Big Composite Clipper CPU load improvement: Added a new slider ('Oversampling Quality' or something like that); CPU load reduction is HUGE and effect on peak control (for values above 4) seems very small.
- Solved a number of warnings that I added in the last few days
- Some small optimizations
- New Highs Gap Protection improved, now similar in behavior to the old one. I had to add 1 extra step (slightly higher CPU load).
- Fixed problems in 771-004. Some optimizations are disabled - I need to fix that.
- Fix CPU measurement for high loads (jumps to 95% for unknown reason). -> Showing real average instead of median now. Median in dark red.
- Difference in measured CPU load is bigger than expected after CPU load measurement update - check why - DONE, is indeed big! Separate slider added to show both processing and total CPU usage.
- CPU: Clipper: Reduced default number of Bass Clipper steps from 4 to 1
- CPU: Clipper: Implemented Leif's mirrorring method for Stokkemask and optimized steps using Omnia interface, much fewer steps for same result.
- Added option to add a text in the title bar to easily recognize multiple instances.
- EXCEPTION OCCURRED IN HttpServer: Got unknown widget ID.
- CPU: Clipper: Highs gap protection: Use 1 step for non-FM.
- Check if COMMON_STATIC still improves performance, if not remove it -> Does not, removed.
- Redesigned parameter classes and moved everything around for integration with other products.
- Remove Stokkemask mode for non-composite FM clipper (it's probably not working correctly and more heavy than the composite clipper)
- Fixed small bug in Composite clipper FM overhead level compensation calculation. Might make the same setting very marginally louder (less than 0.05 dB)
- Fix crash reported in previous post
- Improved CPU load measurement (small part of code wasn't included, it is now).
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Skipping outer parts of window
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Stokkemask: Fixed 'Skip smoothing' mode to be compliant, all other modes removed.
- CPU: Composite clipper: Optimize Highs Gap Protection (trick from Leif Claesson that he uses in the Omnia.9 - nearly no CPU load needed anymore!)
- CPU: Added some #pragma's to make compiler generate more efficient code
- RDS: Added some character conversions (Euro -> E, ` -> '). (not yet tested)
- GUI: Allow drawing scopes in half-height to have more headroom above and below.

TO DO 7.71:
- Synchronization is broken in 008 (was ok in 007) - Don't see it! Is anyone still seeing this?
- Make OldSamples buffers (and potentially others) dynamic to save memory - Currently allocating 85 MB just to display waveforms!!!
- Optimize memory usage: Don't allocate more than MAX_SAMPLES_ST for blocks which only get downsampled audio. So only allocate a few things bigger.
- Fix Mac VST version (not recognized apparently)
- Fix Linux version (someone mentioned that it crashes after a few minutes, on Ubuntu 14.04)
- Add delay (in samples) for one of the two MPX channels to send audio to allow synchronization of 2 transmitters which use the same frequency. (John Markis)

TO DO 7.72:
- Add impulse response import function!!!
- GUI integration for Multiband?
- Instability in compressor behavior [WesKeene, Bojcha]

TODO:
- Noise learning Micha
- Change default preset (it still uses Classic compressor etc!)
- EQ with 'standard' sliders.
- Make BS412-like graph for levels
- Add 'warm' noise before clipper (requested by Andrew Palmquist, might help with PPM as well)
- CPU: Clipper: Optimize Advanced Bass Distortion Protection

Ok, the jumping noise floor is now fixed

What is the appropriate Ignore Frequencies Above for streaming, and what is it for FM?

It seems like setting it to be identical to your bandpass filter's high frequency makes sense for streaming, but is that right? Is it possible that some harmonics generated may go above the bandpass, and by telling the clipper to ignore them, we allow some overshoot? I do not run the Hard Limit function for streaming.

I suggest max 16200 for FM and may be 18000 for streaming.
I mean maximum 1200 Hz above your Lowpass value. Mine is at 15000 , so 16200 is enough.
For streaming i think you don`t need everything above 16800/17000. It`s useless for streaming the most often MP3 format.
This setting do not tell only Clipper to ingone frequencies. That s what i think. So don`t worry for that.

Ignore means not to process (calculate) them . In other words , don`t see frequencies above XXXXX Hz. Something like they don`t exist