CoolEdit Nostalgia visualizer

[hiccup]

@ both kamen and TF3RDL

I'm truly enjoying and appreciating all the work, thought, knowledge and effort the both of you are putting into this, and sharing the fruits with everyone.
And yet, personally (don't hate me), I have to admit that I am not that interested in this functionality. (well, I am where it concerns other audio tools or plugins such as parametric equalisers that can be used within MusicBee)

What I would sell my sisters and granny for, is having a proper VU meter in MusicBee.
Like what has been discussed here.

I am wondering if either of you is interested in that, and if you deem it a viability possibility?
(not to squash any expectations, but the developer of MusicBee already gave it a shot, and surrendered. So I am aware this may not be a reasonable ask at all)

and my apologies for being somewhat off-topic

edit
(moving) pictures say more than words:



or for some weird stuff go here

Wouldn't it be great to have this available in MusicBee?

[kamen]

Hi TF3RDL, thanks for commenting back!

IIR filter bank do have logarithmic frequency resolution (which have longer time window for lower frequency bands)

Yes, I can confirm visually now that correlation between frequency and response time, but thought it has to do more with the lower frequencies being longer. Mybe it gets accentuated by the transformation too.

BTW, a filter bank analyzer displaying as linegraph (instead of bars as in this project mentioned earlier) kinda reminds me more of Spectrolizer

Good observation. Spectrolizer places the whole spectrum on a circle. In fact the original output was more of upward parabola in my case, so I had to straighten it a bit, so that it matches better the FFT.

Overall I'm pleased with how the IIR works, as it is very natural to look at, with very detailed clean tones.

[kamen]

Hi hiccup,

Your request isn't totally offtopic here.
aktor did request a VU-meter like behavior for the nostalgia plugin some time ago and it is now available.

You can test it for yourself, whether the fluency is what you are looking for.


I know it is not on a curved scale, but still will give you a sense for the dynamics. Be sure to try that at 60fps and time window larger than 125ms for best results.

[hiccup]

You can test it for yourself, whether the fluency is what you are looking for.

Me playing (or being) dumb here:   ;-)
I downloaded the zip, and I see that it contains four dll's.
There is no explanation in words what to do with them.
I did see a reference to some "look at the 'how to install.png', but in my current state of being, it doesn't help me.
(yep, that's probably me)
Could you explain in words what to do with the files I downloaded?

Also,
Are you sure that navigating to  Filtering > Peak Flat will result in displaying a proper old-fashioned VU meter?
(I'm ready to get my mind blown)

[kamen]

Are you sure that navigating to  Filtering > Peak Flat will result in displaying a proper old-fashioned VU meter?
(I'm ready to get my mind blown)

No. At best, you'll get a level meter.

Something like this for example:


As for the installation: files are copied to the plugins folder as a normal plugin. Then you go to MB Arrange Panels and add the plugin to the floating window for example.

[hiccup]

Are you sure that navigating to  Filtering > Peak Flat will result in displaying a proper old-fashioned VU meter?
(I'm ready to get my mind blown)

No. At best, you'll get a level meter.

That's what I thought.
My actual question was if either you or TF3RDL would be interested in (and deemed it possible) to create a traditional looking VU meter (with moving needles and stuff) as I have showed and linked to some specific examples of.

So that's probably a 'no' then.
Don't blame me for having tried. As you were, ignore the interrupt, and please carry on.

[sveakul]

Me playing (or being) dumb here:   ;-)
I downloaded the zip, and I see that it contains four dll's.
There is no explanation in words what to do with them.
ICould you explain in words what to do with the files I downloaded?

Actually there are, both on the plugin's MusicBee download page, and in the readme.txt file inside of the downloaded zip.  Scroll down past "Version History" in both places and you'll see:

Note1: To install just copy these files to the "Plugins" folder:

    mb_CoolEditNostalgia.dll (must copy - GDI rendering, docked, height configurable version)

    mb_CoolEditNostalgia_floating.dll (optional - adds floating resizable version)

    NostalgiaD2D.dll (optional - enables Direct2D rendering)
    d2dlib32.dll (optional - enables Direct2D rendering)

Note2: To remove the plugin remove the above mentioned dlls and optionally the setting file(s):

    \AppData\CoolEdit Nostalgia (docked).ini
    \AppData\CoolEdit Nostalgia (floating).ini

[hiccup]

Actually there are, both on the plugin's MusicBee download page, and in the readme.txt file inside of the downloaded zip.  Scroll down past "Version History" in both places and you'll see:

Thanks, and much appreciated sveakul.
But I am bowing out of this thread, since the only reason that I hi-jacked this topic is because I was seriously interested if the guys that are creating and improving this visualiser would also be interested in trying to create a traditional VU meter with needles and stuff.
And it looks like that is not on the horizon.

[TF3RDL]

Yes, I can confirm visually now that correlation between frequency and response time, but thought it has to do more with the lower frequencies being longer. Mybe it gets accentuated by the transformation too.

Of course, it is not obvious when viewed as frequency vs. amplitude plot (especially a static image rather than a GIF or a video) but it becomes so when viewed as spectrogram (which displays time axis in-addition to frequency and amplitude axes)

Overall I'm pleased with how the IIR works, as it is very natural to look at, with very detailed clean tones.

Don't forget that underlying IIR filter can be cascaded for steeper leakage rolloff on filter bank analyzer at the cost of temporal resolution becoming blurry

BTW, IIR filter bank doesn't have to be logarithmically spaced and in fact, it can have something like Mel frequency scaling on the filter bank analyzer (the frequency scaling option should be independent on transform algorithm option) as in this CodePen project, where bandwidth or Q factor of each filter is automatically determined by differences between minimum and maximum frequency boundaries for each band, which optimizes the time/frequency resolution tradeoff for the given frequency scaling options

[Artesoll]

Hi, I would like to ask if there is a possibility of using this plugin in the Now Playing panel in the future?

If this possibility exists and it is my stupidity, disregard this question.
Thanks for the great job

[TF3RDL]

Speaking of lack of an API function in MusicBee to get raw waveform data for visualizations, would using a Winamp DSP just for providing sample data for non-FFT spectrum visualizations (and time-domain based audio analysis like LUFS meters and vectorscope) change the audio so that it clips when the input audio goes above 0dBFS since like FLAC, Winamp DSP plugin system doesn't support floating-point input/output iirc?

[sveakul]

Hi, I would like to ask if there is a possibility of using this plugin in the Now Playing panel in the future?

If this possibility exists and it is my stupidity, disregard this question.
Thanks for the great job

You can use it now in Now Playing in floating panel mode--resize the panel to your needs.  A bit messy but you can position it more-or-less out of the way/in harmony with the rest of the interface.

[Artesoll]

Hi, I would like to ask if there is a possibility of using this plugin in the Now Playing panel in the future?

If this possibility exists and it is my stupidity, disregard this question.
Thanks for the great job

You can use it now in Now Playing in floating panel mode--resize the panel to your needs.  A bit messy but you can position it more-or-less out of the way/in harmony with the rest of the interface.

It wasn't quite what I imagined, as I wanted the plugin to appear only in the Playing Now panel. I try to use more "clean" layouts like this (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=41502.0) and this plugin would be a wonderful addition to that panel.
But that's ok, it's a great job
Thanks

[TF3RDL]

An infinite average spectrum that appears alongside the main spectrum and peaks would be appreciated

Elements from what you propose are already visible in how the maximum (which is actually peak) and minimum work. I'll have in mind the infinite average when experimenting with new things.

Ideally, the infinite average spectrum should be reset on seek, playing a new track, and/or stopping playback, otherwise that spectrum would stay the particular curve as infinite average as the name suggest, never ends

I wonder whether or not the MB can output complex FFT values in order to implement the feature to display phase part

No complex values.

But it shouldn't mean adding the Side channel (S = (L minus R) divided by 2) is an impossibly (at least without using Winamp DSP trickery with getting raw samples data) right?

BTW for curiosity, would the combined (M = (L+R)/2) channel not display if you play an audio file that is completely out-of-phase (in other words, it is a stereo .wav or .flac file where the second channel is exactly the same as the first but with inverted polarity)?

Steven is away for a couple of weeks. Let's wait when he is back.

As of today the story with the samples API hasn't moved forward, but I have some progress to tell about. Have a look at my next post.

What a shame! The underlying BASS audio library already support getting raw samples data (ideally in floating-point) in-addition to FFT spectrum data (that MusicBee API currently has) for visualizations

[kamen]

Actually there are, both on the plugin's MusicBee download page, and in the readme.txt file inside of the downloaded zip.  Scroll down past "Version History" in both places and you'll see:

Thanks, and much appreciated sveakul.
But I am bowing out of this thread, since the only reason that I hi-jacked this topic is because I was seriously interested if the guys that are creating and improving this visualiser would also be interested in trying to create a traditional VU meter with needles and stuff.
And it looks like that is not on the horizon.

I'll comment on what's possible in the VU-Meter thread.