BBP test in this weekend

Hi Didac!

Good thing it at least sounds good 😉.

There will definitely be a version in the future where all parameters (including the noise gate) are configurable.

However, since you heard a lot of noise even in this version, I wonder, where did that noise come from?
Could you record the input to BBP and send? Just run a wave recorder on the same sound card as BBP, so that you record the unprocessed input, and also let me know what settings you used.

The reason I’m asking is that noise gates are not magic. If there is too much noise in the source material, it cannot be removed without also affecting the audio itself, even if you adjust every setting in the multiband noisegate.

Also, you might want to try the Oldies preset — it has the most aggressive noisegating of all presets.

Audio dropout every 15 minutes sounds like it could be a hardware or software issue. You might want to run BBP on a clean install of Windows XP, without any other software running on the same machine. Even though it runs in Realtime Priority, it’s still possible that other programs (or hardware) can interfere.

For example, I once had a computer where there was a slight audio glitch every 3 minutes (180 seconds), like clockwork. This happened with EVERY audio card, EVERY program. After troubleshooting for a long time, i finally realized that it was the Promise fasttrak SX4 raid controller that was causing it! Any time the driver was loaded, it would cause this interruption every 180 seconds. Very annoying, and technical support had no answers — I had to stop using the card completely!

It’s not *really* necessary to use 1000ms buffer in Airomate — it should work fine with lower settings, but because there is nothing to gain from lower RDS delay, I recommend the highest setting just to be sure.

The RDS problem you’re seeing is very strange — does it work better when you use Airomate directly with the sound card, without BBP?

Best regards,
///Leif

Modman, if it’s becoming too noisy when the track finishes, that means Range is set too high!

Breakaway is simply boosting the volume more than you want it to. If you turn down the Range control, the problem will go away completely.

I could add 20hz high pass in the future if it’s an important feature. Can you tell me where the 30 option causes problems? I would be very interested to know, I am always interested to improve Breakaway. 🙂

For FM, 20hz would not be a viable option, since many PLLs destabilize under 30hz.

///Leif

Modman, I would like to know what subwoofer you have that plays below 30hz, and also what songs you are playing. I have never found a song with bass notes below 30hz other than specific bass-test tracks!

Remember, the high pass filter can be turned off completely too. This way you can be sure to keep all subsonic information, if you really want it. 🙂

If you hear Breakaway bring up noise too much in the intro / outro, then Range is too high, it’s really that simple. Try 30, or maybe even 20!

It depends on what preset you’re using too. Helix tends to boost noise because of its extreme use of multiband compression — other presets may do better. It’s all a tradeoff — Breakaway doesn’t add any noise, but because of how smooth the compression is, it can be deceptive — one doesn’t notice how much the audio is really gained up, until you hear the noise.

You can find out the exact gain from looking at the meters. If the top of the Input AGC meter says 18dB, and the top of the Multiband meter says 12dB, and all meters are retracted all the way (as they would be when a song is fading out), then that’s 30dB of straight gain applied. For modern music, this isn’t really a problem, but if you have an older recording with -50dB noise floor, and boost it 30dB, then you’ll have noise at -20!

Downward expanders (noisegates) help somewhat, but it’s not magic, physical laws must still be obeyed.

Best regards,
///Leif

[quote author=”modman”]LOL…you’re correct, you can’t hear bass below 30hz but you can definitely feel it on a high quality monitoring set up. When I compare 20hz to 30hz (low cut) using a good quality VST plug-in on Bessel filter, you definitely notice a difference!

As for the gate…I’ll record you a clip with and without the VST gate in front, for you to hear the difference. 🙂[/quote]

I must be weird then, because I can hear bass under 20hz quite readily. I have a sub that hits -3db at 18hz too. 🙂 Did I mention I actually shattered one of my windows making the Helix preset this past summer?

@ Bessel, i bet it’s not anywhere near as sharp as Leif’s, so you’re probably hearing more like 45hz to 35hz (just an estimation from experience)

@ recording a clip, cool 8)

Right, I have a screenshot for you of both audio clips, With & Without the gate and the audio files, not that you need them, as the screenshot tells all! 😉

As you can see on the clip Without gate, BBP starts to rush the floor noise up after 17 seconds and 13 seconds into this, it’s at a mega -6db!

Then the clip With the external gate (set to my special perameters ) has nothing.

To be honest, any proper radio station that will be using BBP won’t get effected as they will NEVER have any audio silences, but it’s probably still a good idea to sort the gating issues as it’s an easy fix and it’s better with it, then without! 😀

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VK65062A
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BKA2FO18

I’ve been doing some further tests on this and after installing BBP on 3 different PC’s all with different Sound cards I’ve come to an interesting conclusion. Basically, when using a standard on board sound card, BBP is picking up "dirty sound card" noise, resulting in floor noise being processed causing the floor rush in BBP.

When using an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Sound card this doesn’t happen so basically BBP is very sensitive to what you feed it and it must have minimal floor noise. In Didacs case, his console is causing the floor noise, causing BBP to be noisy but in mine it was the noisy on board card.

Leif, I know you want to keep the settings in BBP to the very minimal but I think a gate threshold level adjust wouldn’t go a miss fo rproblrms like these…Just like when you added the MPX EQ booster for sound card roll off! 😕