Smoother Saturation And A New Bass Stage
· by Kjell
Three things tonight, all of which have been on my list for weeks.
First, the preamp simulator got a proportional waveshaper blend. In practical terms, this smooths out the loudness variance you used to get when the drive was pushed into the harder parts of the curve - quiet passages and loud passages now feel closer in perceived level without losing the harmonic character that makes the preamp interesting in the first place. It's the kind of tweak that's subtle per track and obvious across an album.
Second, I reworked the artist and album views. The scrolling was fine on small libraries and painful on big ones, so I rewrote the layout and view recycling from the ground up. It's now much faster and much gentler on the CPU, especially on older machines. The difference is immediate.
Third, Output Tools got a Bass Enhancer with three specialized modes - tuned for different listening situations. Not a loudness war button, in fact, it attenuates a little. A thoughtful low-end enhancer for planar headphones and other open-back headphones that require a little more weight in the low end.