Next is the sustain portion, where the sound remains at the same level for a relatively long period. This screenshot of a snare waveform shows you the approximate position of the various ADSR elements.Īs the sound starts to drop in level after the attack, that's the beginning of the decay portion. A sound's transient is a short, high-energy spike in the attack, like when a drum stick first hits the drum head or the hammer on a piano first contacts the string. The attack portion is the part at the beginning where the sound is reaching its highest level. We generally break that up into four portions: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (aka 'ADSR'). To put attack and sustain in context, think of them in terms of a sound's amplitude envelope-which is a template for describing how the level of a sound behaves over time. To demonstrate some of the possibilities, Fred plays the track while turning the attack and then sustain up to extreme levels. He recommends experimenting with the parameters on a transient shaper, to see how they're impacting a particular sound. He says the clap track is 'taking its space more, doing what it's supposed to do, which is attack.' He also compares them in context of the drumbeat of the song. He compares the claps with and without the processing, and you can definitely hear the attack being intensified by the plug-in.

In the video, Fred wants to add a little attack, presumably to make the claps pop a bit more in the mix, and he removes a little sustain to tighten up the sound. Native Instruments Transient Master, opened here in Logic Pro X, is one of many transient shaper plug-ins available In more practical terms, it allows you to independently accentuate or reduce the attack and sustain portions of a sound, which can be really handy. Technically, a transient shaper is a dynamics processor like a compressor, except that it's not affected by incoming signal level. Most transient shapers are single-band processors, although there are some multiband ones. Let's talk a little about how such an effect works. He says that with or without a compressor, a transient shaper can really lift your sound. He's using Native Instruments Transient Master plug-in. We pick up the action with him working on a clap track. (You can watch the entire video if you're a pureMix Pro Member.) TWEAKING WITH FRED In this free excerpt, Fred is talking about how he uses a transient shaper plug-in.

In the full video 'Fred Everything Enhancing House Beats, he demonstrates techniques for making a classic House beat more interesting.

Native instruments transient master vst