CoolEdit Nostalgia visualizer

[kamen]

CEN's peak meter shows at the moment only the momentary peaks. RMS is also calculated, but not visualized for the moment, as I didn't find it especially useful.

Displaying peak and RMS measurements at the same time probably gives you a very rough idea of a dynamic range thing in music that a peak-only measurement doesn't

The thoughts behind the decision were: the peaks are more suitable for MB as an audio player, because it helps monitoring the level changing functions like replay gain. The dynamic range seemed to be less important as it remains static for the prerecorded audio, and it is visible well enough trough the spectrum above.

[kamen]

I want to put a pause to the work on CEN for the moment, as it got some kind of a "roundness".

I'll try to find some focusing points, from the list with random ideas on my side, that seem useful, before going futher.

If you see something that needs attention in the mean time, let me know!

BTW, is stereo balance/phase correlation spectrum useful? Like this one

Thanks for that! I like the idea and I've added it to the list with ideas.

[TF3RDL]

I want to put a pause to the work on CEN for the moment, as it got some kind of a "roundness".

I'll try to find some focusing points, from the list with random ideas on my side, that seem useful, before going futher.

If you see something that needs attention in the mean time, let me know!

Great, better off taking your time than releasing a half-assed update

BTW, is stereo balance/phase correlation spectrum useful? Like this one

Thanks for that! I like the idea and I've added it to the list with ideas.

Yep, better off discussing about the ideas (like a complex-input FFT where left and right channels are real and imaginary values respectively for FFT input) than just adding/implementing into it without thoughts on how useful it is

BTW on the unrelated note, I think Crossover (developer of foo_enhanced_spectrum_analyzer and foo_loudness_peakmeter) is active within February-June month range, according to his current last active of 02-June-2024 00:12:12 and recent activity tab for this profile on HydrogenAudio I've checked

[kamen]

Just to share a couple of thoughts...

I'm preparing a small update soon, with some small fixes and  new things, but mostly around the tools in CEN.

The peakmeter is cool, but I'm not sure how its readings compare to "peak" readings on a VU meter.

It turned out both CEN and VuMeter measure the same thing (nomatter how the unit is called), which becomes obvious when Rise and Fall of VuMeter is set to maximum value. Then the value on the scale is the same as the Input reading from CEN. At least this is what I came up with when comparing both...

BTW, is stereo balance/phase correlation spectrum useful? Like this one

Thanks for that! I like the idea and I've added it to the list with ideas.

Yep, better off discussing about the ideas (like a complex-input FFT where left and right channels are real and imaginary values respectively for FFT input) than just adding/implementing into it without thoughts on how useful it is

Im eyeing some kind of phase visualization, something like this:


It seems to be very neat and can bear multiple channels at the same time.

[kamen]

Version 6.3 is uploaded

This update is mainly about the inbuilt tools. There are many fixes to the previous tools and an addition of the new level histogram.

There was a substantial samples dropping bug in the live waveform and peak meter tools, which are now (hopefully) fixed.
Also the peak meter now shows the RMS along with the peak value, which was a discussion point in the previous version.



Important!
The themes are now moved form ".\AppData\CoolEdit_Nostalgia_*.ini" to ".\AppData\CoolEdit Nostalgia Themes\*.ini". So if you already have any saved theme files under AppData\CoolEdit_Nostalgia_*.ini, just move them into the new folder...

The advantages:
There is no more the need to have the "CoolEdit_Nostalgia_" prefix to the theme files. Also the themes folder supports subfolders!


As always, if you notice something strange, let me know!

[TF3RDL]

Version 6.3 is uploaded

This update is mainly about the inbuilt tools. There are many fixes to the previous tools and an addition of the new level histogram.

Cool addition (but I haven't tried MusicBee nor this plugin although I've now played AudioSurf game, which happens to use the same audio engine as MusicBee and AIMP)

Meanwhile, I've posted April Fools things like this and this on HydrogenAudio forums about these two foobar2000 components developed by Crossover

[sveakul]

Version 6.3 is uploaded

This update is mainly about the inbuilt tools. There are many fixes to the previous tools and an addition of the new level histogram.

There was a substantial samples dropping bug in the live waveform and peak meter tools, which are now (hopefully) fixed.
Also the peak meter now shows the RMS along with the peak value, which was a discussion point in the previous version.

Forgot to say THANK YOU for this newest version with the histogram and fixes! Particularly cool is the addition of RMS values along with Peak values on the Peak Meter.
BTW, when you said, "It turned out both CEN and VuMeter measure the same thing (nomatter how the unit is called), which becomes obvious when Rise and Fall of VuMeter is set to maximum value. Then the value on the scale is the same as the Input reading from CEN," are you referring to RMS?  Certainly SOMETHING concrete is being measured if it is showing the same on both meters, or am I missing it completely?

[TF3RDL]

And what about reassigned FFT visualization and how does it compare to IIR filter bank mode on both spectrum analyzer and spectrogram?

BTW on the unrelated note, what's up with my "Is there a foobar2000 component that X" posts on r/foobar2000 not getting replies and inadvertently polluting search results?

[kamen]

Cool addition (but I haven't tried MusicBee nor this plugin although I've now played AudioSurf game, which happens to use the same audio engine as MusicBee and AIMP)

I like the game! It reminds me of this TouchDesigner project, which also displays the audio wave as a 3d road.

And what about reassigned FFT visualization and how does it compare to IIR filter bank mode on both spectrum analyzer and spectrogram?

Reassigned fft - It looks interesting as far as it is understandable from wikipedia.
Generally speaking smoothness is more pleasant to the eye than sharpening (which seems to be the purpose of reassigned fft), but I can imagine it being interesting in terms of random noise shaping.

Forgot to say THANK YOU for this newest version with the histogram and fixes! Particularly cool is the addition of RMS values along with Peak values on the Peak Meter.
BTW, when you said, "It turned out both CEN and VuMeter measure the same thing (nomatter how the unit is called), which becomes obvious when Rise and Fall of VuMeter is set to maximum value. Then the value on the scale is the same as the Input reading from CEN," are you referring to RMS?  Certainly SOMETHING concrete is being measured if it is showing the same on both meters, or am I missing it completely?

Good that it works for you!
To your question I cannot give you the definitive answer. My visual impression is that Peak is being measured and used by VuMeter, but I remember that somwhere on the forum the author mentioned RMS during the development. Visually I read it that way: the lower the value of fall and raise, the more averaged output value is produced, which approximates to the RMS over time; and the higher the fall and raise values, the closer it is to the peak value.

[TF3RDL]

Cool addition (but I haven't tried MusicBee nor this plugin although I've now played AudioSurf game, which happens to use the same audio engine as MusicBee and AIMP)

I like the game! It reminds me of this TouchDesigner project, which also displays the audio wave as a 3d road.

That video linked above looks more like a WhiteCap visualizer than an actual road in AudioSurf 1 and Audiosurf 2 and for a good measure, have you even played one of two AudioSurf games (or both) before?

And what about reassigned FFT visualization and how does it compare to IIR filter bank mode on both spectrum analyzer and spectrogram?

Reassigned fft - It looks interesting as far as it is understandable from wikipedia.
Generally speaking smoothness is more pleasant to the eye than sharpening (which seems to be the purpose of reassigned fft), but I can imagine it being interesting in terms of random noise shaping.

Agreed, I've already tried implementing reassigned FFT here and it worked well (but with caveats especially with shorter window lengths)

BTW, a filter bank analyzer can be made to look smoother just by lowering the Q value for all bandpass filters, which can also improve time resolution on bass frequencies (especially with spectrogram display)

Forgot to say THANK YOU for this newest version with the histogram and fixes! Particularly cool is the addition of RMS values along with Peak values on the Peak Meter.
BTW, when you said, "It turned out both CEN and VuMeter measure the same thing (nomatter how the unit is called), which becomes obvious when Rise and Fall of VuMeter is set to maximum value. Then the value on the scale is the same as the Input reading from CEN," are you referring to RMS?  Certainly SOMETHING concrete is being measured if it is showing the same on both meters, or am I missing it completely?

Good that it works for you!
To your question I cannot give you the definitive answer. My visual impression is that Peak is being measured and used by VuMeter, but I remember that somwhere on the forum the author mentioned RMS during the development. Visually I read it that way: the lower the value of fall and raise, the more averaged output value is produced, which approximates to the RMS over time; and the higher the fall and raise values, the closer it is to the peak value.

The raise and fall values on VU meter sounds like attack and release times on dynamics compressor VSTs and AFAIK, an RMS meter is essentially a summation of short audio chunk in squared domain ("f(x) = hypot(x[0], x[1], x[2],...x[N])/sqrt(N)") where "x" is a sample point at given time

BTW, I've added a new "Sum and difference" display option on my own AudioWorklet-based dual-channel FFT project, which is when you try to do a Mid/Side conversion on MusicBee's native FFT function and even foobar2000's get_spectrum_absolute() function

[kamen]

Cool addition (but I haven't tried MusicBee nor this plugin although I've now played AudioSurf game, which happens to use the same audio engine as MusicBee and AIMP)

I like the game! It reminds me of this TouchDesigner project, which also displays the audio wave as a 3d road.

That video linked above looks more like a WhiteCap visualizer than an actual road in AudioSurf 1 and Audiosurf 2 and for a good measure, have you even played one of two AudioSurf games (or both) before?

I did try AudioSurf 1 to get an impression. I don't understand how exactly the road is generated, but found some similarity to the 3d perspective.

And what about reassigned FFT visualization and how does it compare to IIR filter bank mode on both spectrum analyzer and spectrogram?

Reassigned fft - It looks interesting as far as it is understandable from wikipedia.
Generally speaking smoothness is more pleasant to the eye than sharpening (which seems to be the purpose of reassigned fft), but I can imagine it being interesting in terms of random noise shaping.

Agreed, I've already tried implementing reassigned FFT here and it worked well (but with caveats especially with shorter window lengths)

BTW, a filter bank analyzer can be made to look smoother just by lowering the Q value for all bandpass filters, which can also improve time resolution on bass frequencies (especially with spectrogram display)

I witnessed some good results with spectrogram on your sample project. The reassigned fft seems to be visualizing very well the middle part of spectrum as well as the tempo (if not too bass heavy). This algorithm makes an excellent usage of the imaginary part of fft. I played a bit with the bucket sizes, how are they supposed to influence the output?

[kamen]

Just recently found that the DSP and RAW bridges of CEN crash on fresh installation of win 11. If this is the case with someone, it is required to install the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86)". Not sure when that would be, but I'll fix this dependency with next CEN version.

[TF3RDL]

I did try AudioSurf 1 to get an impression. I don't understand how exactly the road is generated, but found some similarity to the 3d perspective.

Me too after I'm tired of waiting for Enhanced Spectrum analyzer 2.0.0.0 component for foobar2000 so long that I had to force myself playing AudioSurf and play some test tones with it

I witnessed some good results with spectrogram on your sample project. The reassigned fft seems to be visualizing very well the middle part of spectrum as well as the tempo (if not too bass heavy). This algorithm makes an excellent usage of the imaginary part of fft. I played a bit with the bucket sizes, how are they supposed to influence the output?

Obviously, changing the FFT size influences the output; longer FFT sizes have less fuzzy look on lower frequencies but it will have bad time resolution and conversely, shorter ones obviously have sharper time resolution but at the cost of making this reassigned spectrogram look more like a point cloud at lower frequencies (assuming when viewed on logarithmic frequency scale)

[kamen]

Obviously, changing the FFT size influences the output; longer FFT sizes have less fuzzy look on lower frequencies but it will have bad time resolution and conversely, shorter ones obviously have sharper time resolution but at the cost of making this reassigned spectrogram look more like a point cloud at lower frequencies (assuming when viewed on logarithmic frequency scale)

I didn't realize that the bucket size is actually the fft size. But because of the different resolution properties of the different sizes, a hybrid transformation could make sense??

[kamen]

CoolEdit Nostalgia 6.7

This update has grown mainly in three directions:

- hold functionality - it now has different behavior. It pauses the visualizations and allows for point/interval measurements to be made, using the cursor lines and an arbitrary selectable vertical line.
- phase meter tool - basically it projects the left and right signals on the x and y axis. The color of the separate line segments correspond to the signal's phase or line's angle.
- phase histogram tool - uses the same colored phase concept, but arranges the information more neatly as a circular histogram with radius 1.





Some notes on the phase measurement:
The colored phase measurement originates with CoolEdit, but later Audition declined the usage of full color, which was professional but wasn't cool anymore.

How to interpret the phase measurements:
When the signal is aranged around the right diagonal (0 or 180 degrees), it is said to be in-phase (or mono), and when around the left diagonal (+90/-90 degrees) - out-of-phase (or inverse). When the diagram widens around the right diagonal, the surround effect increases.

This is the phase meter output for a sinusoidal signal, with some (forgotten, but unimportant) degree of phase difference between the channels:



Besides the new things, I tried to test the plugin for a while and fix some bugs, but if you notice something let me know!