In
Detail
The Transient Designer provides a revolutionary concept
for dynamic processing rendering controls such as Threshold,
Ratio and Gain superfluous. The Transient Designer's
automation is highly developed, so that while the processing
going on inside the box may be very complex, the user
has to deal with just a few intuitive controls.
Differential Envelope Technology
SPL's Differential Envelope Technology is the first
analog solution for level-independent shaping of envelopes
allowing transients to be accelerated or slowed down
and sustain prolonged or shortened. The degree of
dynamic processing required to do this couldn't be
duplicated even using a chain of several conventional
compressors, yet only two controls per channel are
required to allow the user to completely reshape the
attack and sustain characteristics of a sound. Attack
can be amplified or attenuated by up to 15dB while
Sustain can be amplified or attenuated by up to 24dB,
enabling weak drum sounds to be made much more percussive
and powerful, or for over-percussive transients to
be softened. All necessary time constants (Attack,
Decay and Release) are automated and optimised adaptively
in a musical manner according to the characteristics
of the input signal. This results in natural sounding
signal processing and fast operation.
How does the Transient Designer work?
The Transient Designer uses envelope followers to
track the curve of the natural signal so that optimum
results are guaranteed regardless of the input signal's
dynamics (for more information refer to Tech Talk).
Because of the level-independent processing inherent
in Differential Envelope Technology (DETª), manual
threshold adjustments are not required. In order to
maintain the cleanest possible signal path, the Transient
Designer uses the excellently specified THAT 2181-VCAs,
which are especially natural sounding, transparent
and create minimal distortion. High amplitudes are
processed without damping of high frequencies or reducing
bass.
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Sound benefits |
• |
The attack of a bass drum or a loop can be emphasised
with a single control to increase the punch and
the penetration in the mix |
• |
Sustain
of a snare or room-sound can be shortened very
musically to clean up the mix for more transparency
|
• |
Acoustic
or electronic instruments get "in the face"
sounds or can be smoothened with lower attacks
|
• |
De-verb capability! Less Sustain shortens reverb
flags of any sound (more elegant than gates do)
|
• |
New
panorama effects based on different dynamic effects
per channel – really groovy for loops |
Other
features and connectivity
For stereo operation the Link function connects channel
pairs (1 and 2 and/or 3 and 4). Linked channels are
controlled by the same side-chain voltage so as to
maintain a coherent and stable stereo image. When
operating in Link-mode, the control elements of the
first (or third) channel, including the Active switch,
control the second (or fourth) channel, too.
Each channel is equipped with a relay hard bypass
circuit to ensure a minimum signal path when the process
is bypassed and to provide power fail safety. The
Signal-LEDs allow to quickly monitor the signal flow,
which is particularly important if the four channels
are connected to a patchbay. The Transient Designer
is fitted with XLR-connectors for balanced operation.
To improve signal quality, SPL has developed a new
hybrid-component balanced input/output stage using
all laser-trimmed resistors with a tolerance of 0.01%.
This approach has resulted in an exceptionally high
CCMR (common mode rejection) better than -80dB at
1kHz.
