Plugin like SPL Transient Designer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ofajen
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What DAW are you using? for the price of an receptor, you could get a G5 . But you'd still need to buy a SPL Transient Designer.
I'm still hanging on a G4 dual 800, and its getting hard, even with a UAD-1, DP4.
T
ofajen said:
Hmmm... with my old 800 MHz G4 Mac, they's only so many plugins I can use at one time! Still, I will check it out. I've been thinking about adding a Receptor at some point to take the load off the G4.

Cheers,

Otto
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1tonio said:
What DAW are you using? for the price of an receptor, you could get a G5 . But you'd still need to buy a SPL Transient Designer.
I'm still hanging on a G4 dual 800, and its getting hard, even with a UAD-1, DP4.
T
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I use Live 6 and Peak Pro 5. Not everything is done with the DAW alone. I also still use a 3M M-79 1/2" 4 track and then port over to the DAW when the 4-track is full. I have also just about rehabbed my 3M M-23 1/4" machine for mixdown. I'm also about to be reunited with my long lost Auditronics 110 console, once I make a road trip to pick it up.

Cheers,

Otto
 
Hello everyone,

since this is a thread about transient designers and I just happend to release a beta version of mine, which Pipe already posted, I just thought I chime in ...

nononsense! said:
I am wondering what the difference in quality is between the original SPL transient designer and these sort of plug-ins. Has anybody ever had them both?
I have various SPL equipment and am very enthousiastic about it, but always found the transient designer a bit limited as heared in demo's.
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Well I don't own any hardware transient designers, but some folks at KVR gave their opinions about how it compares to hardware and other software transient designers: LINK [1] (and also the following posts). But all I can tell you is, my plug-in is free, so you can try it out and decide by yourself, well at least you can decide wether it sound good or not (if you don't own the hardware version you, however, can't decide if it is just like th hardware though, which my Transient Shaper is NOT modled after anyway).

Okay and now how the Spl transient designer works: LINK [2]

So basicly it has nothing to do with a compressor, but is really a tool to shape the transients (e.g. give them more/less attack/sustain, which a compressor can do to SOME extend but it will never succeed in it as good as a transient desginer will).

Link to my plug-in website with lot's of free, gui-less VST (JS, NSPS) plug-ins:
LINK [3]
And a direct link to the latest version of the Transient Shaper:
LINK [4]

Feedback welcome.

Sorry can't post links, yet. But you'll find my website in my profile and it has also the latest version of the Transient Shaper on it ;).
 
chessrock said:
Well, on that subject, I suppose if I was dealing with a retard, I might highly recommend one of these transient designer thingies to them. Something about the whole "threshold and ratio" control thing seems to trip them up every time, and dumbing things down to only two knobs just makes things much easier for them to digest (turn "attack" knob up for more attack, and sustain knob up for more sustain -- how utterly clever).


.
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It used to amaze me how utterly little you know about audio. But after so many posts of your proving it, not so much now. ;)
 
LOSER said:
well at least you can decide wether it sound good or not (if you don't own the hardware version you, however, can't decide if it is just like th hardware though, which my Transient Shaper is NOT modled after anyway).

Okay and now how the Spl transient designer works: LINK [2]

So basicly it has nothing to do with a compressor, but is really a tool to shape the transients (e.g. give them more/less attack/sustain, which a compressor can do to SOME extend but it will never succeed in it as good as a transient desginer will).
Click to expand...

Thanks for joining the conversation!

Your last comment above raises the question of what use, if any, I would still have for a standard downward compressor, if a transient designer is available. After all, I really have no interest in compressing a signal, per se... it's really the abiilty to control the attack and sustain of percussive tracks to get them to sit right in a mix that I'm after.

You say your plug isn't modeled after the SPL device. Does it still use the same basic differential envelope concept? I could see having the relaxation (attack or sustain) time of the comparator envelope as a controllable parameter, rather than fixed, as in the SPL device, maybe even with separate relaxation time controls for attack and sustain.

Looks like I need to get a FW interface and start using my XP laptop, since I'm not finding much that runs under MacOSX.

Cheers,

Otto
 
ofajen said:
Thanks for joining the conversation!

Your last comment above raises the question of what use, if any, I would still have for a standard downward compressor, if a transient designer is available. After all, I really have no interest in compressing a signal, per se... it's really the abiilty to control the attack and sustain of percussive tracks to get them to sit right in a mix that I'm after.

You say your plug isn't modeled after the SPL device. Does it still use the same basic differential envelope concept? I could see having the relaxation (attack or sustain) time of the comparator envelope as a controllable parameter, rather than fixed, as in the SPL device, maybe even with separate relaxation time controls for attack and sustain.

Looks like I need to get a FW interface and start using my XP laptop, since I'm not finding much that runs under MacOSX.

Cheers,

Otto
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Why would somebody want a downward compressor? :confused:

I would say that just about EVERY pop vocal track you have ever heard has a downward compressor on it.

A quality compressor, set properly, will create a character on a vocal track that you can NEVER achieve without one.
 
Ford Van said:
Why would somebody want a downward compressor? :confused:

I would say that just about EVERY pop vocal track you have ever heard has a downward compressor on it.

A quality compressor, set properly, will create a character on a vocal track that you can NEVER achieve without one.
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In my post, I was only talking about what's useful to me, not others. Neglecting for a moment the fact that I don't do pop vocals much, my point was that more sophisticated, higher level dynamics tools, such as the Transient Designer, could probably do most dynamics processing jobs just as well as a simple downward compressor, and in a lot of cases much better. I wasn't arguing that dynamics processing isn't useful or in some cases essential.

We have so many downward compressors in part because many years ago they were relatively easy devices to create with available hardware, not necessarily because they are the ultimate solution to the challenges of dynamics control. I find downward compressors to be fairly crude tools, musically speaking, and I'm glad higher level devices are emerging that focus on the musical parameters, instead.

Cheers,

Otto
 
ofajen said:
Your last comment above raises the question of what use, if any, I would still have for a standard downward compressor, if a transient designer is available. After all, I really have no interest in compressing a signal, per se... it's really the abiilty to control the attack and sustain of percussive tracks to get them to sit right in a mix that I'm after.
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Well a transient designer, as the name implies, can only work when there are actual transients, the more and clearer those are shaped, the better it can work. So it is almost perfect to anhance the attack or sustain of drums.

But there are alot of things it simply can't. Those include but are not limited to reduce the dynamics of a signal (main purpose of compressor), since a transient designer is mostly level independent it will still kick an attack even louder even if it is already maxed out. Another thing you'll never be able to do with any transient designer ... sidechaining ;)

I also admit I haven't used a transient designer much before (actually never before I started my own), but there are some things that a transient designer will do a lot better than any compressor out there. A compressor therefore will fulfills different tasks, that a transient designer simply can't at all! So to not make this any longer ... a transient designer is only usefull for drums IMO, while a compressor is more versatile.

Hope this help, and this is only my opinion.
 
Ford Van said:
It used to amaze me how utterly little you know about audio. But after so many posts of your proving it, not so much now. ;)
Click to expand...


It used to amaze me how much you think you know, but ... on second though, no. It never really amazed me. :D

.
 
LOSER said:
But there are alot of things it simply can't. Those include but are not limited to reduce the dynamics of a signal (main purpose of compressor), since a transient designer is mostly level independent it will still kick an attack even louder even if it is already maxed out. Another thing you'll never be able to do with any transient designer ... sidechaining
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Well put. Again, I was only speaking for my purposes, not in general. I tend to try to use manual gain riding and more practice/retracking rather than automated compression for most larger scale dynamics adjustments. Still, my earlier comment was a bit hyperbolic, as you've pointed out. I will always have tracks and mixes that need some reduction of dynamics that can only be done with some sort of downward compression. Though, you've got me wondering if there might be a related algorithm that would be handy for those longer-time scale adjustments. Hmmm....

Cheers,

Otto
 
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