Transient Shaping- WTF?

Boost11
won't elaborate.  Just don't like to use it.

And speaking of guitars...with the judicious use of the TS you can make yourself sound like a much "cleaner" player.  Controlling transients is an essential tool in modern mixing.  How are you trying to use it backwoods, ol pal?

Depends a lot on the TS effect. The Sonalksis TS integrated into Superior Drummer is excellent and I use it a lot. The TS effect bundled with SONAR, OTOH, is pretty useless. At least, I've never been able to use it.

Before you start resenting the engineer's meddling with a part you played, remember that his concern is how the part fits into the mix. Every inexperienced player I've ever observed in a studio seems to end up disappointed when he hears the final mix, because he's listening to just his own part and not the overall sum of all parts. "I worked so hard on that and it got buried!" "They took all the meat out of the guitar!" "I'm not even in the second verse at all!"

backwoods


What is the point of the transient shaper? Is it used by the pros or is it a novelty. I have had a crack with the one in Sonar and the one in Alloy and it just seems like a pointless invention.

I'm sure drummers must hate them. I know- as a piano/keyboard player- I was frustrated when effects were pasted on after I had played my part, I would have played differently had I known how the piano was going to sound. 

As engineers- are there any plugins you detest/eschew for similar reasons?

Autotune. :P


Worst case, maybe try the same as we sometimes do with compression. Duplicate the track, sculpt that w/ TS and blend the result with the original. 

Don't know about the one in Sonar, but I would think that the one in Alloy should be relatively good if it's up to Izotope's standards.

I find it useful on a ukulele.  A uke can have a soft attack and get buried in the mix.  TS helps bring the attack out and help it find its place in the mix.

Bajan Blue


Juan
I use the one from Stillwell Audio, which I find really easy and very good http://www.stillwellaudio.com/?page_id=18

Nigel

 
Thank you, I will check it out!!!!

It can be a godsend on a dull sounding kick drum.

Well it looks like everyone is actually pretty keen on the idea of a Transient Shaper- who would've thought?

How are you trying to use it backwoods, ol pal? Hi, Yoropal- I have really just been fiddling about with it (on miked drums) and have been underwhelmed. But I can see people coming to their defence so I might try and dig a bit deeper. Aren't drums designed to make the sound they already make? And if not can't we use apocryphal Beatle tricks such as a teatowel on a snare...


FWIW, To me it's a bit of a "boutique" processor.- Jim Roseberry  I think with a bit of practice I should like to be able to at least have an understanding of how to use it effectively- so one day it may become a boutique processor for me also.


Before you start resenting the engineer's meddling with a part you played, remember that his concern is how the part fits into the mix. Every inexperienced player I've ever observed in a studio seems to end up disappointed when he hears the final mix, because he's listening to just his own part and not the overall sum of all parts. "I worked so hard on that and it got buried!" "They took all the meat out of the guitar!" "I'm not even in the second verse at all!" - Bitflipper- sums me up perfectly Bitflipper alas. But it should read "how the part fits into his vision of the mix". I think modern music is often rubbish because engineers believe they are playing the most important instrument and they want to use all the gadgets so that they show they appear thety know what they are doing. 


I'm like the title character in Ed Wood, get it in one or two takes and call it a day. Then as far as mixing goes for each track EQ, Compression - Reverb in seprate bus- send to master channel (is this know as the 2bus or am I mistaken). 

edit: i can also use gates, delays etc and can automate tracks etc- I'm not a complete moron.

To me the most important use of transient shaping is making sloppy acoustic guitar strums a little more punchy.

Many folks also forget the a good Transient Shaper like UAD's SPL for instance works great "both ways".  I use it quite often to soften the attack of kick in jazz pieces...to get that "pillow" sound.  You really need to experiment with it further backwoods, ol pal.  It's a very useful tool. 

One of the problems with the Transient Shaper is there are no real instructions on how to use it. Until I came across this rather excellent article in Sound on Sound.

http://www.soundonsound.c...cles/sonarworkshop.htm

After reading this it all seemed a bit clearer. It is a useful and powerful tool. Be careful what you use it on. It can be quite severe in what it does. I have found it handy on individual tracks at times to either soften the leading edge of a sound or tighten it up somewhat.

Here is some useful info as well about the PX64 from the same people.

http://www.soundonsound.c...sonarworkshop_1009.htm

SOS is essential reading in my opionion and the Sonar and other DAW workshops are pretty good value toward the back of the issues.

backwoods

What is the point of the transient shaper? Is it used by the pros or is it a novelty. I have had a crack with the one in Sonar and the one in Alloy and it just seems like a pointless invention.

Transient shapers are included within, and probably considered to be an essential feature of, all sample-based softsynths (e.g. DimPro, Rapture, SampleTank, Battery).  It's hardly a novelty.

Since I have not used the Cake TS let me just ask this question:  Is it really that bad that folks cannot tell the real, useful and musical difference a TS makes??

That seems kind of silly.   We have all these different processors so that we can change sounds around.   Or should we have never amplified a guitar?  I mean that's certinaly not how one should sound right? 


You're quite right K. It doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there. I can certainly hear the difference the TS64 makes but I can't improve the source audio. Maybe Rain had a good idea when he suggested parallel treatment.

I've used them on overheads to take an obnoxious stick attack off the ride cymbals and hats. Works well, but bypass it during crash hits, or it can really skew a crashes balance on a hard hit.
    I remember using it harsh maraca and cabasa percussion too.

It's not a tool you really intend to use: it's more of a clean-up tool when you can't re-track or go back to square one.