A HIGH PERFORMANCE CW LISTENING STATION using free software

[Chuck aa0hw]

- Using free DSP software -

- VST HOST - VST PLUGINS -

- build this high performance CW listening station on your computer -

HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE MAIN MIXING CONSOLE

note: click on picture to enlarge 

The audio input can be from any source, which is selected in PEDALBOARD's AUDIO OPTIONS:

In this example, I am using a virtual sound card as the "input" for PEDALBOARD2.  You can use any audio source - - - your rig's audio output,  a cw website's audio output ( like WEBSDR ), an audio player that is playing a cw audio mp3 file,  etc...  here, we are using the audio output of MUMBLE, on iCW, using a virtual sound card, THE VB-AUDIO VIRTUAL CABLE B, and sending the cw audio tones outputted from MUMBLE, to go out on this virtual audio device over to the input of PEDALBOARD2 - AND - then - to the computer sound card, allowing us to apply DSP processing with some high performance FREE VST PLUGINS.

The first plugin is the BESSEL AUDIO BANDPASS FILTER, centered at 700 hertz:

The second VST PLUGIN is a cw pitch shifter - to change the pitch, up or down,  of the received cw audio tones to any desired frequency.  This allows you to hear cw at your own preferred pitch, no matter what pitch the other cw op is sending their cw at...NOTE: of all the free VST PLUGINS tested, this MFreqShifter, was by far the best sounding plugin for this purpose

The 3rd VST PLUGIN is an PARAMETRIC EQ FILTER, set to add some audio "polishing".  This is a very adjustable filter with many features.  In this instance we are using a PEAK filter, and two "notch" filters, before and after the PEAK.

The next VST PLUGIN - is a CW PITCH READER application, to allow us to see where the MFreqShifter is set

The next VST PLUGIN is very useful for listening to CW audio with your speakers.  Adding just enough square wave harmonics to the PURE SINE WAVE cw tones, really makes coping cw with your speakers more comfortable.

The final DSP FILTER delimits the amount and range of the square wave harmonics that are added to the sine wave, using a unique Bandpass Method,  which is adjusted to your own preference 

The final VST PLUGINS are for enabling WAVE FILE RECORDING of anything that is coming through this CW LISTENING STATION, an audio spectrum analyzer and a final output audio VU METER.

HERE IS THE AUDIO SPECTRUM ANALYZER viewing the square wave harmonics

HERE ARE LINKS TO THIS FREE SOFTWARE:

1.  PEDALBOARD2

http://www.niallmoody.com/apps/pedalboard2

pedalboard2 documentation: 

file:///C:/Users/chaseology/Downloads/Pedalboard2-2.12-windows/Peda...

2.  FREE MELDA VST PLUGINS - MFreeEffectsBundle NOTE: download - 32bit only 

FOR BOTH   MFreqShifter and Mequalizer

http://www.meldaproduction.com/download.php?bundle=MFreeEffectsBundle

3.  FREE ENGINEERS FILTER

http://www.rs-met.com/freebies.html

4.  FREE C-TUNER VST PLUGIN [ CW PITCH READER PLUGIN ]

http://www.samplerchan.com/

5.   FREE SPECTRUM ANALYZER PLUGIN - VOXENGO  - download 32 bit only -

http://www.voxengo.com/product/span/

6.   FREE SQUARE WAVE HARMONIC GENERATOR VST PLUGIN - square -O- matic

download this one into your VST PLUGIN folder created by MELDA or REAPLUGS

http://www.audjoo.com/old/software/vst/#SQUARE

7.  REAPLUGS FREE VST SUITE (version 2.1)

Download: ReaPlugs VST v2.1 (last updated January 15 2013)

http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

Once all the FREE VST PLUGINS have been downloaded to your VST PLUGIN folder,  you only have to go into the PEDALBOARD2 options menu to "tell" pedalboard2 where to find them - (see pedalboard2 documentation via the link provided above.)  Pedalboard does not install itself, so you have to go to the folder where you unZIPPED pedalboard2 and double click the EXE file to activate.  Multiple instances of PEDALBOARD2 can be used.  To load a VST PLUGIN, double click on the PEDALBOARD2 screen, and choose a vst plugin from the optoins menu as you see here:

LEFT CLICK HOLD and DRAG to connect VST PLUG WIRES

NOTE:  the MFreqShifter and Mequalizer must not be closed.  There is a "bug" that blanks out the screen if you close them.  You can bring them back however, if you go into the PEDALBOARD2's menu and bring up the AUDIO OPTIONS again and then just close it.  That will bring back the full screens of any MELDA VST PLUGIN.   

Pedalboard2 will save your configurations and sound settings so that you can SAVE and bring it back exactly the way you built it.   

[Chuck aa0hw]

UPDATE:

There is a new updated version(v2.13) of PEDALBOARD2 today, that fixes the issue with the MELDA VST PLUGINS not showing up again if you close them.  Now you can close them and bring them right back up with full screens.

http://www.niallmoody.com/apps/pedalboard2

ALSO, There is a new version of the FREE MELDA VST PLUGINS, check your version in your download folder, and see if you need to update the FREE MELDA VST AUDIO DSP PLUGINS  = version 7.08

NOTE: download the 32 bit plugins...although the new version of pedalboard2 - does now - have a 64bit version, however, it is untested for this purpose at this time...

http://www.meldaproduction.com/download.php?bundle=MFreeEffectsBundle

[Chuck aa0hw]

ANOTHER OPTION FOR ADDING SQUARE WAVE HARMONICS - for better cw speaker copy

MELDA has a plugin called MWaveShaper

It works for this purpose, is very adjustable - with many options for adding just enough and just the right kind of square wave harmonics.  It is already included when you install the FREE MELDA VST PLUGINS.  You can fine tune the acoustics of your cw listening station/room, when using speakers for cw copy; from tiny laptop speakers to full size floor speakers, by adding some audio harmonics to an otherwise pure since wave cw audio tone; it really helps in morse code copy when listening to cw using speakers.  

[Chuck aa0hw]

Here is a short audio example that will demo adding square waves to a qrq file.  

****** Use speakers for this test ******  

This cw audio file text is taken from TOM's, W4BQF's famous article, COPYING CW OVER 70WPM

The file goes back and forth between pure sine wave cw, and adding the harmonics with the plugin.

https://soundcloud.com/chaseology/adding-square-wave-harmonics

ADDING SQUARE WAVE HARMONICS FOR BETTER CW COPY WITH SPEAKERS by chaseology