Sound Solution 2.0 Beta (and Sonos Limit)

[westlife]

Finally after a year and a half, an update to Sound Solution has been released.

My initial impression is that while it offers greater control over the processing features as compared to v1.31, the resulting audio quality has not been drastically improved. However, the added flexibility does help you tame Sound Solution's traditional limitations; for example, the much longer release times do help you reduce the annoying "pumping" effect (although you still need to max out all the AGC attack and release times to achieve a natural sound, IMO).

One minor bummer is that the control panel has grown too large to fit on an 800x600 screen; you have to drag it left and right to access all the controls.

Try it yourself at:

Sonos, which is a subset of the same processing architecture found in the $5000 Inovonics Omega FM. For a preset that will really show you what it can do, including 75 uS pre-emphasis limiting for FM, copy and paste the following text into a file called "Optimax.fmt" and save it in the Sonos folder:

[Limit]
1=0
2=0
3=2
5=0
6=-10
7=16
8=19
9=20
10=5
11=-20
12=-10
13=2
14=-20
15=7
16=0
17=1
18=-9
19=10
20=18
21=12
22=15
23=-14
25=3
26=6
27=12
30=0
31=0
32=2

<P ID="signature">______________

"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[SirNigel]

I'm really annoyed that there's no apparent future for the MBL4 software. I found it quite useful for audio processing.

I'm going to check out the new SS plugin. Hopefully they've corrected some issued like the preemphasis that would clip like crazy if you used it. I also hope they don't start charging for it as I see it's being released as a beta "evaluation version."<P ID="signature">______________
здравствулте!</P>

 

[westlife]

> I'm really annoyed that there's no apparent future for the
> MBL4 software. I found it quite useful for audio processing.

There's "no future" for MBL4 because it's now the basis of the Omega FM processor -- which is really a single-board PC running a proprietary version of MBL4. So you're basically paying $5000 for a PC with $99 MBL4 software burned into its ROM, fancy analog/digital inputs and outputs, and an MPX FM stereo generator. That's why MBL4 is discontinued -- with it, you could basically build your own Omega FM for less than 1/5th of the price, using your own hardware.

Sonos is a scaled-down wideband version of MBL4, with a processing scheme comparable to the Optimod-FM 8000. And it's free. So with Sonos, <a target="_blank" href=http://www.heinecke.nl/stereocoder_en.html>a software-based MPX FM stereo encoder</a>, and a high-quality sound card, you could have Optimod-quality audio processing on your PC for much less than even the cost of a 25-year-old used Optimod 8000 (which typically sell in the $300 to $700 range on eBay).

> I'm going to check out the new SS plugin. Hopefully they've
> corrected some issued like the preemphasis that would clip
> like crazy if you used it. I also hope they don't start
> charging for it as I see it's being released as a beta
> "evaluation version."

The big problem is that the clipping in Sound Solution still isn't "distortion-cancelled". If you're using it to process for an Internet audio stream, where you ideally will be using little or no clipping, it can sound very good. But if you're using it to process for FM radio, where clipping is essential for proper control of modulation and pre-emphasis, it will sound harsh and distorted unless you are willing to accept much lower on-air loudness.
<P ID="signature">______________

"This is the New York Emergency Broadcast System satellite channel. They took the crosstown bus."</P>

 

[jesseg]

> it will sound harsh and distorted unless you are willing to
> accept much lower on-air loudness.

then you havn't tried my preset yet.
http://tinyurl.com/fl58b


ps. i havn't been working on it very long


pps. if you search eMule/Kad p2p network for
Sound Solution v2.0
you'll find a "cracked" version that doesn't have the 4-second silence.

(mod note: it's free software and alessandro has already publicly said it's going to remain free, so using a cracked version is not hurting anyone)