Does anyone have any decent compression settings for stereo tool?

Nice 1

MR WILLAMS wrote:Does anyone have any decent compression settings for stereo tool?

Nice 1

I'm a bit skitzo about this.

As an Engineer I like Stereo tool - because all the controls are there and it is laid-out pretty much like a conventional audio processor so you can understand what you are doing.

However, whatever I've tried Stereo Tool either sounds overly processed, or on lighter setting sounds "edgy" or "metallic".

In contrast, and rather strangely, Breakaway Broadcast just has sliders and I don't know what they are changing - yet it is easy to get the right sound from loud to light.

So my settings recommendation would be a new download of Breakaway Broadcast. If you are using it for broadcast you'd need the more expensive version that does MPX and a half decent sound card - it's never a good idea to do processing and MPX separately.

If you want to stick with Stereo Tool then my advice is "less is more". Find a built-in preset that is close and have a play with small increments, one step at a time and no more than 1dB at a time on each thing you change. Also take your time - evaluate each small change for an hour or so over different material and different radios.

I've got a preset for an old version of Stereo Tool that sounds half-decent (but not as good at Breakaway out of the box) - not sure if the presets are forward-compatible.

I must agree with NOYB. Breakaway is much closer to pro compressors without spending days to tweak it right.

Apparently Breakaway's algorithm is derived from Omnia, which would explain the good sound.

My personal experiences are:

BBP sounds fantastic out of the box with minimal configuration (originally my favourite).

Stereo tool is also good, but needs a lot of time to correctly align. Once it's been done, the results are great.

It's very difficult gauge between the processors performances as both have different characteristics.

I did a kind of 'blind date' test where I'd switch between BBP & ST and ask friends which sounded better. The majority preferred Breakaway. I'm assuming it was due to the algorithm at the time. However this was almost 10 years ago.

I personally prefer the new version of Stereo Tool. There's so many new options, and if you get it right you can sound really good.
Plus ST has the built in stereo & RDS encoders which really help.

I cannot stress enough that you use a good sound card or you may as well not use either.

Tested both with several interfaces. A £2,000 rack unit and £400 portable pocket device, then quickly switched over to the onboard motherboard HD audio and there was no comparison. And the onboard tests were performed using different machines.