Stereo Tool is a plugin that can be used to influence the sound of audio
recordings. It contains a singleband compressor, a multiband compressor, a
lowpass filter and some unique stereo image control tools.
The multiband and singleband compressor can be used to get equal sound levels
in different files, or to limit the maximum sound level.
The stereo image manipulator can be used to convert stereo to mono without
getting any of the artifacts that are normally caused by this, to repair
recordings with phasing problems, to increase
the stereo image, and even to create a stereo sound such that both speakers
still play all the instruments.
The lowpass filter can be used to filter out certain high frequencies,
such as the 19 kHz pilot tone if you want to send the Winamp output into an
FM transmitter.
History
Back in 2001, I started my own internet radio station
(Weird Titan Radio). At the time the highest stream
quality that my provider offered was 56 kbit/s MP3. After some tests I
quickly decided that the only way to get a decent quality was in mono.
Unfortunately, converting music to mono often causes the sound to get
distorted, and even if that doesn't happen, the end result often sounds
very "thin". To solve this, I created some software to convert stereo to
mono, without this quality effect. I also wrote some separate tools for
volume compression etc.
In 2004, I decided to convert all my processing software to C++ and create
a WinAmp plugin: Stereo Tool.
In 2006, I created a new version with more features, a better interface and
much lower CPU usage: Stereo Tool 2.0