NG Processor 1.00 Beta

About this manual

This manual explains how to install, configure and operate NG Processor 1.00 Beta. It is written for station operators, broadcast engineers and technically oriented end users.

The focus is practical operation: audio input and output, the input reference level, presets, Easy Tune, the meters and health indicator, file processing and the NG Encoder plugin. The signal chain is described to the depth an operator needs to make good decisions; the full technical parameter catalogue is documented inside the application itself, per parameter.

Runtime files

NG Processor is portable by design: configuration, presets and log live next to the executable, so the folder must be writable. The installer grants users write access to its installation folder for exactly this reason.

Requirements: Windows 7 SP1 or later (64-bit), Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 (installed by the setup program when missing), a WASAPI capture device and a WASAPI render device for live use.

Quick start

The following procedure is sufficient for a normal live installation between playout and encoder.

Prepare the application

• Run the setup program, or place NGProcessor.exe and the Presets folder in a writable folder.
• Start NGProcessor.exe. With an empty or missing Presets folder only Bypass is offered; the shipped presets appear as soon as their files are present.

Select audio input and output

• Open File > Settings… and select the WASAPI input that carries the programme feed and the WASAPI output that feeds the encoder or transmitter chain.
• Choose the input sample rate (Auto follows the Windows mix format; 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96 kHz are available) and set the Input Reference Level to the nominal level of your feed (default -10 dBFS). See chapter 3.

Pick a preset and go live

• Select ★ Broadcast in the preset list for radio, or ★ Reference for the neutral calibrated sound.
• Click START. Confirm that the INPUT meters move, that the OUTPUT meters sit near the top of the scale and that the health bar reads PROCESSOR HEALTH: GOOD.
• Use BYPASS for a latency-matched A/B against the dry signal.

Main window

The main window combines preset selection, transport and a complete meter bridge without a separate monitoring screen.

2.1Preset selector and transport

2.2INPUT and OUTPUT meters

Horizontal peak meters from -30 to 0 dBFS with red peak-hold markers. The INPUT meter shows the feed as it arrives, before the input reference correction; the OUTPUT meter shows the processed audio at the configured ceiling.

2.3AGC RIDER

Two bipolar rows, MAIN and BASS, show the net gain the AGC currently applies: gain grows to the left in yellow (up to +24 dB), attenuation to the right in white (to -4 dB), zero is the bright mark. On a soft record or a fade-out the bar walks left; on a hot master it sits a little right of zero. When the bar stops moving left, the rider has reached its standing-gain ceiling for that preset.

2.45-BAND DYNAMICS

Five vertical gain-reduction meters for LOW, L-MID, MID, H-MID and HIGH, each with a peak-hold marker. Healthy operation is a few decibels of movement; a band that sits permanently deep indicates a source or voicing problem, not a reason to drive harder. Below the bands, six activity bars: RESTORE (Peak Restore / Natural Dynamics), BALANCE (Spectrum Balance), DYN (dynamics restoration), AIR (air lift), GUARD (adaptive distortion guards) and BASS (LF guard reduction).

2.5FINAL CONTROL

LIMIT L and LIMIT R show the final look-ahead limiter's gain reduction on a 0-8 dB scale with peak hold. Typical dense programme shows one or two decibels of steady movement with deeper excursions on transients only.

2.6Health bar

The right side of the bar shows the audio format in use, for example AUDIO 48.0 kHz · STEREO.

Settings

Open File > Settings… while processing is stopped.

Presets

Every preset is a JSON file in the Presets folder. Nothing is compiled into the executable except Bypass. Editing a preset therefore never requires a new build, and a station can version and back up its sound with ordinary file tools.

4.1The shipped presets

4.2Factory certification

Reference, Broadcast and Audiophile carry a certificate inside the file (schema, product, release version and a SHA-256 of the settings). As long as the file is untouched it is shown with ★ and FACTORY and is eligible for Easy Tune. A normal Save from Expert removes the certificate: the file stays where it is but becomes an ordinary custom preset. A custom file can never obtain a certificate merely by carrying a factory name.

4.3Preset menu

Easy Tune

TUNE opens Easy Tune for a factory preset or a preset derived from one. It offers broad musical tone controls plus the three dynamics decisions an operator is most likely to need. Zero is exactly the preset, changes preview live, APPLY is enabled only when something actually changed, and a double-click returns a slider to zero.

Tone controls move in 0.1 dB steps, dynamics macros in 1% steps; the mouse wheel steps one unit, Shift-wheel ten. The tone macros are real broad tonal shaping - clearly audible - without changing compressor detector calibration.

5.1Saving an Easy Tune result

Saving from Easy Tune stores the factory baseline together with the eight slider values. The star and FACTORY badge disappear (the file is no longer untouched), but the preset keeps its Easy Tune workflow: reopening shows the sliders exactly where they were saved and never applies the macro twice. Any change that cannot be explained by the sliders - an Expert edit - ends Easy Tune ownership; TUNE then opens the Expert catalogue for that preset.

Expert parameters

Behind Easy Tune lies the complete technical parameter catalogue: every stage of the chain with every setting, grouped in sections. It is intended for broadcast engineers; the Easy Tune route covers normal station operation. TUNE opens it automatically for presets that already carry Expert edits; engineers reach it through a deliberately undocumented shortcut on the TUNE button.

6.1Sections

General, Input Filter, Phase Corrector, Restoration, Denoiser, Source Repair, Stereo Enhancer, Dynamics Restore G2 / Natural Dynamics, Spectrum Balance 2 / Relative Dynamic EQ, Tone / Parametric EQ, De-Esser, Low Octave Synth, Speech / Music, AGC, Bass Processor, Multiband - Global, Multiband - Band 1 (Low) to Band 5 (High), Output Limiter / Finalizer.

6.2Help panel

Selecting a parameter shows its preset value, allowed range and - where a reliable translation exists - an equivalent in familiar units: linear thresholds as dB, dBFS thresholds relative to the line-up, dB/s slopes as a time constant, coefficients as percentages, and the windowed ratio as the share of level error it corrects. Operator controls are explained as what it does / turn up / turn down / touch it when / leave it when / watch; calibration parameters are labelled as part of the factory operating point.

6.3Editing

Numeric values open a drop-down with a slider and a bounded spinner, live preview while dragging, a Reset button back to the preset value and both "." and "," accepted as decimal separator. Values that differ from the preset are shown in bold; right-click resets a single value. A search box filters the current section by name. Multiband sections are named by band only (Low, L-Mid, Mid, H-Mid, High).

The AGC in depth

The AGC is a two-sided rider around the internal target level. Audio above the target is pulled down (attenuation, up to the Max Reduction); audio below it is pulled up (gain, up to the standing Max Gain). Small movement inside the floating window passes untouched; outside it, a windowed ratio corrects part of the error - 3.6:1 in Broadcast corrects about 72% - slowly enough that the five-band section owns the musical movement.

7.1States

7.2Outros, intros and the next track

On a fade-out the rider walks toward its standing-gain ceiling; Broadcast allows +16 dB. After a genuine gap a bounded quiet-intro reserve is armed for a soft intro and withdrawn quickly when the loud part arrives. When the next track starts on top of a lifted outro - without passing through the gate - a level jump of at least the sudden-jump threshold while the rider holds stored gain is treated as a new track: the rider re-acquires within a few hundred milliseconds instead of letting the final limiter absorb seconds of entry. The same jump on audio that is already at level is treated as a jingle and simply not chased for the freeze time (1050 ms in Broadcast).

7.3Reading the AGC meter

The bar sits around zero on nominal audio, left of zero when quiet material is being lifted, right of zero on hot material. A bar that is pinned at the left edge of its travel for a whole track means the record is quieter than the preset's standing gain can compensate; that is a preset decision (Max Gain, Idle Gain), not a reference-level problem.

7.4Key AGC parameters (Broadcast 0.99.160)

Sound stages

8.1Restoration (before the AGC)

Peak Restore reconstructs clipped peaks in hot masters, optionally with a spectral deep-restore pass (about 85 ms of extra latency when enabled in real time), guarded by a confidence law so natural flat crests are left alone. The Denoiser is a six-band floor-tracking expander: it lowers hiss in pauses and tails by a few decibels and never touches audio clearly above the noise floor; it cannot remove noise that shares a band with programme. Source Repair notches mains hum with harmonics, the 15.625 kHz line whistle and a 19 kHz pilot only when detected. All three are transparent when nothing is detected.

8.2Five-band dynamics

Crossovers at 100, 400, 1600 and 6400 Hz. Each band combines a progressive compressor with a fast per-band limiter and band-limited clip-error control. The Drive sets how hard the section works as a whole; the Output Mix per band is the tonal colour knob (post-compressor, not regulated back); Common-Mode Calm prevents the five bands from pumping together on the beat. Healthy operation is a few decibels of gain reduction, not a permanent deep hold.

8.3Bass processor

An 18 dB/oct LF contour adds weight; a clean pre-limiter and a deep peak guard share a single reduction budget, so the loudest bass note of a chorus never comes out softer than its neighbours. The Low band's compressor levels sustained heavy bass before it reaches the fast guards.

8.4Tone, air and spectrum balance

The three-band parametric EQ sits in front of the multiband; about half of a static EQ change survives on the long-term spectrum because the band regulates back - use the band output mix for station voicing. The air lift is a second-order shelf with its own guard; the Reference calibration places it at 13.5 kHz. Spectrum Balance 2 slowly normalises persistently dull or bright sources with deadbands and sudden-change protection.

8.5Natural Dynamics, stereo and speech

Dynamics Restore G2 returns crest and punch to flattened masters within a bounded budget. The stereo enhancer widens within headroom limits with mono bass below 170 Hz. The speech/music detector switches a gentler multiband personality for speech; Mode can be forced to Music or Speech for pure formats. A de-esser and a low-octave synthesiser are available and off by default.

Final control

The final stage is a clean look-ahead ladder: a look-ahead limiter with a sliding-minimum gain envelope (the deepest request is held for exactly one look-ahead and then released to what the audio needs), an 8× oversampled clipper with overshoot compensation for the last fraction of a decibel, an optional crest shaper for broadcast density, and adaptive distortion guards that back the chain off when the audio would start to sound processed.

Processing a file

Choose File > Open WAV to process, select a WAV file and choose where to save the processed result. The current working preset is applied with the offline path, which renders exactly the same audio as the live path and compensates the processing latency, so the output stays aligned with the input.

• Use file processing to audition a preset change on a known track before applying it on air.
• Compare a processed file against the original at matched loudness; the processed file will be louder by design.
• Sample rate follows the file; the presets behave identically at every supported rate.

NG Encoder plugin

NGProcessor.Plugin.dll makes the same processing engine available inside NG Encoder. Place the DLL next to NGEncoder.exe; the host loads it from its own folder.

11.1Presets in the host

The plugin scans for preset files at every request, in this order: the Presets folder next to the plugin DLL, next to the host executable, and in the host's working directory. All .json files found are offered to the host (Reference, Broadcast and Audiophile first, the rest alphabetically); certified factory presets are prefixed with a star. The default is Reference when present, otherwise the first file, otherwise Bypass. Files added while the host runs appear on the next refresh.

11.2Processing power

The host offers a bounded processing-power control that scales the selected preset's drive and density; 0 is exactly the preset.

Installation, updates and files

12.1Setup program

The setup program installs per machine to Program Files\NG Processor, creates a Start menu entry and an optional desktop icon, and grants users write access to the installation folder because configuration and presets live there. It checks the registry for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 and installs the bundled redistributable silently only when it is missing (Windows 10 version 1903 and later and Windows 11 already include it); a required reboot is reported at the end of setup.

12.2Upgrades

Upgrades install in place. A running NG Processor is closed and restarted, NGProcessor.exe is replaced, and the shipped preset files are installed only where no file of that name exists yet - your edited Reference, Broadcast or Audiophile stays as you left it. Configuration, custom presets and the log are never touched; the uninstaller leaves the presets in place and tells you where they are.

12.3Restoring a factory preset

To return an edited factory preset to its shipped state, delete or rename its file in the Presets folder and run the setup program again, or copy the file from another installation. The certificate inside the file re-validates automatically and the star returns.

12.4Portable use

NGProcessor.exe plus the Presets folder in any writable folder is a complete installation. Keep one folder per instance when running more than one processor on a machine.

Troubleshooting

13.1Only Bypass is listed

• The Presets folder next to NGProcessor.exe is missing or empty. Copy the preset files in and use Preset > Reload presets from disk.

13.2A factory preset lost its star

• The file was saved from Expert or edited by hand and no longer matches its certificate. This is intended; the preset is now yours. See 12.3 to restore the shipped file.

13.3TUNE opens the Expert catalogue instead of Easy Tune

• The selected preset carries Expert edits. Select a factory preset, or save a fresh custom preset from Easy Tune.

13.4No meter movement

• Confirm the WASAPI input in Settings, the upstream routing and the Windows level and mute state. Audio I/O is locked while processing; stop first to change devices.

13.5PROCESSOR HEALTH: ATTENTION

• Read the detail: INPUT BUFFER · x% FULL indicates live buffer pressure from the audio device or the machine. Check CPU load, device drivers and other real-time audio software. The state clears itself when the pressure is gone.

13.6The AGC does not lift a quiet record or a fade

• Watch the AGC meter: if it is pinned at its left limit the preset's standing gain is exhausted. Use Broadcast, or raise Max Gain / Idle Gain in the preset. Do not lower the Input Reference Level for this purpose (chapter 3).

13.7The first beat after a lifted outro hits the limiter

• Expected briefly: the look-ahead limiter catches the very first transient; the rider then re-acquires within a few hundred milliseconds. If the level stays hot for seconds, check that the preset's Sudden Jump Threshold is not set unreasonably high.

13.8Presets sound the same

• Confirm the version in the title bar matches the build you expect, and that the preset files in Presets are the ones you think they are (a custom file with a factory name shows without a star).

13.9Processing a WAV fails

• The file must be PCM or IEEE-float WAV. Check NGProcessor.error.log next to the executable for the reason.

Commissioning checklist

• Set the Input Reference Level to the nominal level of the feed and verify with a line-up tone.
• Listen to the chosen preset for a representative broadcast hour on the players your audience uses.
• Confirm the true-peak ceiling against the distribution chain (FM, DAB, streaming codecs).
• Play a soft intro after a gap, a long fade-out into a hard track start, and a jingle on level programme; watch the AGC meter and the final limiter.
• Check the health bar stays GOOD under normal machine load; note any ATTENTION causes.
• Save the station sound as a custom preset and back up the Presets folder and NGProcessor.config.
• If NG Encoder is used with the plugin, verify that both point at the same preset files.
• Confirm operators know that BYPASS is latency-matched and that Easy Tune zero equals the preset.

Glossary

AGC rider

The slow gain stage that levels programme around a target using a floating window and a ratio.

Bypass

Built-in preset with every stage off; also the latency-matched dry path behind the BYPASS button.

Certificate

Metadata inside a shipped preset file that proves it is untouched; shown as ★ FACTORY.

Crest shaper

Final-stage shaper trading a little waveform purity for broadcast density.

Easy Tune

Eight-slider operator layer over a factory preset; zero equals the preset.

Expert

The full technical parameter catalogue with per-parameter help.

Hot re-acquisition

Fast AGC convergence when a new track starts on top of stored gain.

Input Reference Level

Nominal level of the feed, mapped to the internal line-up so presets need no re-tuning.

Jingle freeze

Short hold of the AGC rider after a level jump on audio already at level.

Look-ahead

Delay that lets a limiter act before a peak reaches the output.

Output mix

Per-band level after compression; the station's tonal colour control.

Quiet-intro reserve

Bounded extra AGC gain armed after a real gap.

Standing gain

The AGC's upward room (Max Gain); Idle Gain is where it parks while gated.

True peak

Inter-sample peak level in dBTP.

WASAPI

Windows audio interface used for live input and output.

Support information to collect

When reporting a problem, collect: the version shown in the title bar, Windows version, input and output devices and sample rate, Input Reference Level, the preset in use (and whether it shows a star), the health bar text, the exact error text, and the relevant lines from NGProcessor.error.log.