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Breakaway VS Stereo Tool

Many stereo tool users on board? Been toying around with it,the plug in for winamp sounds pretty darn good. Not the prettiest looking ...As you know it's his undo product leif is using on the 09...Feel free to chime in..
 
Undo is by Leif. Hans' declipper is used, but is only part of what Undo does. The word Undo is even trademarked for audio use by Leif. Not sure how the confusion on this keeps getting more pervasive.

As far as racing... maybe it's best to wait until Stereo Tool's multiband is redone?
 
I tried Stereo Tool, but its interface brought back bad memories of "Sound Solution". I like having manual control over a processor, but not THAT much control!
 
satech said:
I tried Stereo Tool, but its interface brought back bad memories of "Sound Solution". I like having manual control over a processor, but not THAT much control!
I agree with that.
It is a bit overwhelming and maybe even confusing. But what I miss most are some good presets to start with. I've tried several but couldn't find one I liked enough. Not in Stereotool itself, not on the userforum. I use the declipper plugin in Breakaway and Stereotool is easier on voices, but nevertheless I still use Breakaway.
 
- Undo is TM of 0.9 and it's Declipper + Multiband expander.

- Yes, bug critical part in Stereo Tool is Multiband, i hope that soon will be changed :)

- Breakaways does not have "Phase rotator" Name is "Phase scrambler". Usually Phase Rotator messes up things with bass. "Phase Scrambler" from Breakaway does not do that (intentionally).
Stereo Tool's Phase Rotator contain both things. Scrambler and Rotator. Scrambler is activated when "rotations" are at 0. Other then 0 is Rotator.

br
 
In my opinion, neither is superior in all cases. I have found applications where I definitely like one over the other. In one case, I have both of them running together. Stereo Tool has its quirks, but it is far more adjustable than Breakaway is at present. For some however, that can be its own problem, as there's a faction out there that believes a processor's worth is somehow connected to how well it can turn everything into square waves.

As has been said, these products are a far cry from their early versions. I do worry a bit about the feeding frenzy that goes on when updates are being created. Some people are never happy, are far too picky, and for the price, waaaay too demanding.

I have some transmitters sounding very, very good in major market settings, where competing processors start at far higher prices and, in my opinion, have some real audible problems.
 
Undo is indeed Leif's, the declipper is mine.

The last few months I have worked on a lot of things in Stereo Tool, and the sound is a lot better than it was - say - a half year ago (in fact, if you're testing with it, make sure to get the latest beta - there are some big quality improvements in it, most importantly the output sound is much more consistent and the highs are louder and more natural than before).

Nearly all the filters in Stereo Tool have now gone through several redesigns, the most important one that hasn't is indeed the multiband compressor - and I agree that it's currently the weak spot of the program. (It doesn't sound bad if you use it mildly, but it's not possible to make any sound that you want with it).

Fortunately, the feedback in this thread matches nearly exactly with the things I want to start working on very soon:
- New parameter structure. This should be much more user friendly (among others it should add the ability to load and save settings for each filter separately, and will have a separation between normal and 'expert' parameters) and I want to make a new GUI without standard Windows elements (among others, it should be much easier to precisely set sliders without having to use the cursor keys)
- New Multiband compressor. I have 2 possible designs for this, one from Jesse and one of my own. I think my own design will be easier to implement and it should have much of the benefits that Jesse's design has, so I'll probably start with that one.

Because the multiband compressor will require a lot of new parameters I want to implement the new parameter interface first.
 
So nice of you to chime in.I wasn't trying to open up a can of worms,but feedback is always good,whether good or bad.Looking forward to the new advancements.As we know processing is subjective.Once again thanks for your post and may we see more in the future?
 
Stereo Tool version 6.32 is released now. No multiband or GUI changes yet, but the quality difference with earlier versions is still pretty big (highs are much brighter and more natural, and the sound is far more consistent than before), so you might want to re-run your comparison 8).

http://www.stereotool.com/
 
Still patiently (well, kind of patiently) waiting for the new version of Breakaway Broadcast Processor :)
 
BobOnTheJob said:
Still patiently (well, kind of patiently) waiting for the new version of Breakaway Broadcast Processor :)
In spite of all good intentions and promises I believe the releasedate in this case is prone to coincide with a rare low temperature meteorological event in a place where he/she that wears Prada has set up shop.Still love current version though!
 
Both great products and great value. Hans is up front in saying the Stereo Tool multiband and GUI are the weak points. BBP also has presets for a wider variety of formats. And because of that BBP will indeed better suit some. But if you haven't tried ST in a while, I find the very latest ST 6.32 takes the lead in some other areas - the declipper, and the new final loudness/clipper section for FM just has to be heard.

Its worth the time for a quick desktop A/B comparison. On a I3/5/7 download the trial of ST6.32, BBP and mpxtool. Run both together. Set your wave file player output to BBP Pipeline 1. Set BBP & ST input to BBP pipeline 1. Set BBP MPX out to Pipeline 2. Set ST MPX out to Pipeline 3. On MPXTool Live A/B switch between BBP pipeline 2 & 3 inputs.

While processing is of course very subjective, in that A/B comparison for FM with similar loudness levels, I find BBP more tonally/signature consistent, but ST overall cleaner, more natural/open and less fatiguing, particularly on solo voice and highs. But I know others may find otherwise, and would like to see what you think.

With a new multiband and GUI coming soon for ST and a new version of BBP on the horizon (with a new clipper), it's inspiring stuff at the price point of theses two products - thanks to Hans and Leif!
 
Storm905 said:
particularly on solo voice
I'd have to say that if BBP has a weak spot, it's solo voice...but just some solo voices. From my playing with it, the ASIO version is cleaner on solo voice than the standard version. Put music behind the same voice and it's audibly cleaner. This comes from one who's always considered dry voice to be one of the hardest things to process & have the output sound nearly as clean as the input.
 
Much improved version of st. Looks like the race is on.solo voice and density were the concerns I had with bbp,but it,s a good deal for the bucks.but st may be a better deal For less bucks.got us a good race going here.
 
I haven't tried ST in awhile, much less on the air...but I do own the declipper. And I like it. A lot.

Richard, can you tell me how you have your BBP configured to use Hans' declipper?

I may give ST another chance, based on what I have recently heard. I'm comparing/coming from an Omnia6exi, when I say that Breakaway handles voice immaculately.

Right now, Breakaway is by far the best processor I have at my disposal, but an O.9 is in the budget. :)
 
Sgeirk said:
I haven't tried ST in awhile, much less on the air...but I do own the declipper. And I like it. A lot.

Richard, can you tell me how you have your BBP configured to use Hans' declipper?

I may give ST another chance, based on what I have recently heard. I'm comparing/coming from an Omnia6exi, when I say that Breakaway handles voice immaculately.

Right now, Breakaway is by far the best processor I have at my disposal, but an O.9 is in the budget. :)
I simply use the DeClipper plug-in in BBP,, works like a charm.
I would really love to find the right multiband expander to get even closer to Undo ;)
 
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