SPL TwinTube, User Manual

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Analog Elemental Series
Transient Designer | Applications
The Transient Designer is ideally suited for use in professional recording, in project or home
studios and sound reinforcement applications.
For the first time you can manipulate and control the attack and sustain characteristics of a
signal regardless of level in the most intuitive and simple way. Usually equalizers are used
to separate instruments in a mix – the tonal aspect of the signal is considered, but not the
temporal aspect. The Transient Designer opens this further dimensions in signal processing.
By manipulating the attack and sustain curves of a sound event, the mix can be made to sound
more transparent. Instruments can be mixed at lower levels while still maintaining their posi-
tions in the mix—but occupying less space.
During a remix or in general after miking you can arrange new positions of instruments.
Reduce ATTACK and increase SUSTAIN to move signals back into the mix that are too present.
Additionally, the FX parts of too dry signals are strengthened.
Applied to single instruments or loops the Transient Designer allows you to create entirely
new sounds and effects.
The following examples are given as suggestions and examples. The described procedures
with specific instruments can of course be transferred to others which are not mentioned
here.
Drums & Percussions
Processing drum and percussion sounds is probably the Transient Designer’s most typical
range of application, both from samples to live drum sets:
• Emphasize the attack of a kick drum or a loop to increase the power and presence in the
mix.
• Shorten the sustain period of a snare or a reverb-flag in a very musical way to obtain more
transparency in the mix.
• When recording a live drum set, shorten the toms or overheads without physically damping
them. Usual efforts to damp and mike are reduced remarkably. Since muffling of any drum
also changes the dynamic response, the Transient Designer opens up a whole new sound-
scape.
• Miking live drums is considerably faster and easier because you can correct the apparent
‘distance‘ of the microphone by simply varying the ATTACK and SUSTAIN values.
• The Transient Designer is a perfect alternative to noise gates in live drum miking.
Adaptively reacting to the duration of the original signal, the sustain is shortened more
musically than with fixed release times and a drumset is freed from any crosstalk quickly
and effectively.
• Create unusual dynamic effects including new and interesting pan effects. For example,
patch a mono loop through two channels of the Transient Designer and pan fully left and
right in the mix. Process the left channel with increased ATTACK and reduced SUSTAIN
while you adjust the right channel the opposite way and you get very special stereo loop
sounds. You have to try this to appreciate what it sounds like, but expect to hear a lot of
unusual stereo movement.
• Enjoy an amazingly simple integration of drum sounds into a mix. If the acoustic level of
a snare is expanded to approxi4 dB by increasing the attack value, the effective
increase of peak levels in the overall mix is merely about 0.5 dB to 1 dB.