Transient Shaper

Overview

A Transient Shaper uses a dynamics processor that allows you to alter characteristics of a sound’s Attack (the initial hit of the sound in your ear) or Sustain (used here to refer to everything not Attack). It is especially useful for shaping percussive sounds.

For example, it can be used to emphasize the stick attack of a snare drum sound, while de-emphasizing its body or room sound. Careful use of the Transient Shaper module can help a wide range of material sit differently in a mix, making it a powerful sound-shaping tool for any style of music.

Controls

The Transient Shaper has four sections:

• The top Global area, containing parameters that affect the entire Transient Shaper.
• The Gain Adjustment meter section just below that, to meter gain adjustment as it happens.
• The spectrum view, where you may set crossover points.
• The lower detail pane, containing the detailed controls.

Global Envelope Modes

These global modes allow you to choose between three different Transient Shaping algorithms.

• Precise: Fastest recovery time to the next transient. Most accurate and responsive when adding or removing attack to a signal.
• Balanced: Middle ground of the three modes. Fairly quick attack and medium release time when recovering from one transient to the next.
• Loose: Slowest transient recovery time for all types of material. Best mode for adding large amounts of sustain.

Reset

This will reset the entire Transient Shaper to default values if you wish to start over. If you click this button and experience instant remorse, never fear…you can open the Undo History and revert the change to go back to the settings you had prior to reset.

Gain Adjustment Trace

This view offers a scrolling meter that displays the incoming signal’s waveform with a superimposed curve that illustrates the amount of gain adjustment taking place in real time.

Paying close attention to the trace juxtaposed over the waveform, and how it illustrates the effect changing envelope modes can have on allowing audio to return to 0 dB of gain before the next transient, is an important tool when seeking to achieve maximum transparency.

Note: the scale can be adjusted on the left-hand side.

Attack

Positive values will emphasize the attack of transients while negative values will decrease the attack. This parameter is a useful way of having an element cut through or sit back in the mix without adjusting overall volume or EQ…try it!

Sustain

Positive values will increase the sustain portions of the track,while negative values will decrease the sustain. Increasing Sustain can inflate a weak kick drum for the better.

Contour

The Contour control allows the user to tweak the response of the Transient Shaper:

• Sharp has the fastest and tightest release time and works best on short and staccato material such as drums.
• Medium offers a transparent and linear release envelope. This mode tends to work well on a majority of material.
• Smooth is the slowest envelope of all the modes. Smooth works best on sustained instruments and signals and allows more of the initial transient through, affecting Sustain in a gentle, unobtrusive way.

Utility functions

Mix

The Mix slider in the signal flow is a highly useful feature, allowing you to do parallel Transient Shaping. At 100%, you’re hearing only the audio processed by Transient Shaper, whereas at 50% you’re hearing an even blend between unprocessed and processed audio.