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RackPack: Transient Designer
Applications
The Transient Designer is ideally suited for use in professional record-
ing, in project or home studios and sound reinforcement applications.
For the first time you can manipulate and control the attack and sus-
tain 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 tem-
poral aspect.
The Transient Designer opens this further dimensions in signal pro-
cessing. 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 positions in
the mix—but occupying less space.
During a remix or in general after miking you can arrange new posi-
tions 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/or effects.
The following examples are given as suggestions and examples. The
described procedures with specific instruments can of course be
transfered 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 musi-
cal 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 soundscape.
• 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.
Drums & Percussions