All about transient design
Often, when we reach for tools such as compressors, we’re looking to add ‘punch’ to hits, or ‘length’ to the tails of percussive sources. While compressors and limiters are capable of shaping sounds in much more sophisticated ways than by these two characteristics alone, if you seek one or both of them, transient designer plug-ins might help you achieve your desired sound, with the benefit of a scaled back (and easy to use) set of controls. Most transient designers (or transient shapers) provide attack and sustain dials. These split a source signal into its initial transient phase and the following portion. Don’t be confused by the term ‘sustain’ here; the second control will affect your sound whether it has a sustaining portion or not. A percussive hit, for instance, often features a strong, weighty initial transient before the decay stage begins, which slowly tails off the volume of the hit. However, the sustain control in a transient designer isn’t designed to enhance an existing sustain portion but to progressively add volume to this decay phase as it tails, to create a more sustained shape.
Plug-ins like SPL’s Transient Designer and NI’s own Transient Shaper provide attack and sustain dials and – pleasingly – not much else with these controls adding (or subtracting) decibels of gain from these two phases. However, if you want more advanced features, plug-ins like Sonnox’s Envolution refine transient shaping further, by providing extended envelope-shaping to the transient and sustain portions, as well as frequency-sensitive behaviour, so that particular frequencies can be enhanced or omitted at the detection phase. In particular, transient shapers are great for creating ‘sustained’ percussive sounds, whether you seek a snare sound whose length continues through its original decay phase, or want a clap or percussive sound to be elongated to ‘last’ for a full 1/8 or 1/4 note within your track.