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•	A world’s first from SPL
•	In Detail
•	Tips & Tricks

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A world’s first from SPL

The Transient Designer offers a completely new technology for level-independent shaping of the dynamic response of a sound: For the first time it is possible to control the attack and sustain of a signal in a very simple way!

Unlike other dynamic devices, the processing is not goverened by the signal level but rather by its dynamic characteristics, so all signals (loud and soft) are processed equally.

The Transient Designer allows you to emphasise or smooth the attack and extend or shorten the sustain. For the first time it is possible to shape the dynamic path of a signal as you want, as if for example you were changing the microphone distance and position after the recording has been made.

With no effort you can shorten or lengthen the attack of all kinds of percussive signals, such as the bass drum, snares, toms, congas etc. to give them more kick, or to flatten the signals. It’s almost like being able to change the amount of drum damping after the recording. The same applies to virtually any other signal: Amplify or reduce the picking sound of an acoustic guitar, hold the sound of the strings longer, reduce the reverbtime of a choir, compress solo vocals, increase intelligibility, actuate the piano pedal “electronically”, turn down the slapbass a notch or give it even more attack, etc.

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In Detail

In nearly every aspect the Transient Designer is different from conventional Dynamic Processors or Compressors. You don't need to know how the Transient Designer works in order to be able to use it effectively, but if you're at all curious as to what goes on inside the box, read this section while referring to the diagrams.

Differential Envelope Technology (DETª)
Differential Envelope Technology (DETª) maintains identical envelope processing from quiet to loud signals (from pianissimo to fortissimo) without the need for the user to adjust any external parameters. In a conventional system, low level signals would be excluded from processing. Both parameters (Attack and sustain) work in parallel and do not influence each other.

The Attack control circuitry
The Attack control circuitry uses two envelope generators. The first follows the shape of the original curve (Diagram1: envelope follower Env 1) rendering conventional Attack and Release controls superfluous, while the second generator produces the envelope Env 2 (Diagram 1) with a slower Attack. The hatched area shows the difference between Env 1 and Env 2 (Diagram 2), and the VCA control voltage is derived from this difference. Positive Attack values emphasise Attack events, negative Attack values smooth out the Attack envelopes of events

The Sustain control circuitry
The Sustain control circuitry includes two further envelope generators. The envelope follower Env 3 (Diagram 4), again follows the shape of the original curve rendering conventional Attack and Release controls superfluous. For a longer period the envelope generator Env 4 (Diagram 4) holds the sustain level according to the peak level and the VCA control voltage is generated by the difference between Env 3 (Diagram 4) and Env 4 (Diagram 5: hatched area). The sustain is extended at positive settings and shortened at negative settings.

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Tips & Tricks

One of the most interesting applications of the Transient Designer is processing drum and percussion sounds, both from samples to live drum sets:

•	The attack of a bass drum or a loop can be emphasised to increase the power and presence in the mix.
•	The sustain period of a snare or a reverb-flag can be shortened in a very musical way to obtain more transparency in the mix.
•	Recording a live drum set, toms or overheads can be shortened without physically damping them
•	Miking live drums is considerably faster and easier, because the apparent 'distance' of the microphone can be corrected by varying the ATTACK and SUSTAIN values.
•	The Transient Designer is a perfect partner to noise gates in live drum miking.
•	Corresponding adaptively to the duration of the original signal, the sustain can be shortened more musically than with tightly adjusted release times, effectively reducing crosstalk.
•	When recording live drums or other instruments on a HD recording system, the Transient Designer prevents time-consuming removing of crosstalk signals on the hard disk.
•	It is possible to create unusual dynamic effects, including new and interesting pan effects. If, for example, a mono loop is patched through two channels of the Transient Designer panned hard left and right in the mix, such that the left channel is processed with increased attack and reduced sustain while the right channel is adjusted in the opposite way, a very special stereo loop sound is created. You have to try this to appreciate what it sounds like, but expect to hear a lot of unusual stereo movement.
•	By reducing attack and increasing sustain, signals that are too up-front sounding can be moved back into the mix. Additionally the FX parts of 'too dry' signals are strengthened.
•	Drum sounds are easier to integrate into the mix. If the acoustic level of a snare is expanded to approximately +4dB by increasing the attack value, the effective increase of peak levels in the overall mix is merely about 0.5dB to 1dB.