It is interesting that in a forum full of folks who hear different things from different filters, you stick pretty closely to describing the technical aspects of the various filters in HQ Player. You have noted that certain filters are better for transients and what sort of ringing occurs, but, so far as I recall, leave more subjective views about the sound of the filters or their effect on stereo imaging up to users to try out for themselves and discuss.
So I wanted to ask you a more general question:
Have you ever developed a filter or modulator and been surprised about how good/bad it sounded ?
Yes, it happens… I usually have some objective goal / specification in mind for a design. Once I have it working from objective point of view, I give it a listen. poly-sinc-ext2 is latest example where I was surprised how good it sounded and in a way I didn’t expect. On the other side, I’ve always got disappointed how intermediate phase filters sound, to the extent it annoys me. Maybe someone likes them, but I just cannot, so far.
Large part of the development effort is to make something that performs the way intended from objective point of view while also sounding good. That means a lot of ditched designs that never manage to reach goals.
Modulators and noise shapers are tricky beasts where there are even more factors in play than with filters. Developing modulators is especially time consuming process, to get everything together.