WAVES Smack Attack Transient Shaper Plugin User Guide
- June 7, 2024
- WAVES
Table of Contents
WAVES Smack Attack Transient Shaper Plugin User Guide
Introduction
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The Waves Smack Attack Transient Shaper adds smack, sting, spike, and bite to your drums and other transient-rich instruments. Use it to harden or soften attacks and to boost or reduce sustains. You can shape your transients in a creative way or use Smack Attack as a surgical tool. Smack Attack has zero latency and it processes in real time, so it transforms your transients live or in the studio.
About Smack Attack
Transients are short-duration, impulsive changes in a sound. They naturally occur in drums and other percussion instruments, and in most instruments whose sound begins with a strong attack. Smack Attack is designed to detect, shape, and manipulate these transient sounds. It identifies transients based on their fast change in amplitude. Detection is not based on an absolute peak level, so Smack Attack can discern transients within low- or high-level signals.
Smack Attack acts on two parts of a transient: attack and sustain. It manipulates attack transients by making them sharper or smoother, and sustain transients by making them more or less prolonged. The amount of processing is proportional to the transient rate of change: higher rate-of-change means greater action. Separate Sensitivity controls for attack and sustain let you set independently which transients are processed: perhaps only the loudest transients, or all of them, or anything in between. Processing controls–Level Change, Shape, and Duration–are also adjusted separately for attack and sustain. This gives you more control when shaping the overall impact of the sound.
You can mix the processed signal with the input sound to blend the transient effect, and you can adjust output level by up to ±24 dB to get a clean, spiky sound. You can also create a loud, overdriven output signal and then limit dynamically or saturate without dynamic processing. Each of these output methods yields distinct results.
Smack Attack is designed primarily for individual instruments or mix groups where you want to boost, attenuate, or manipulate transients–or to build creative effects. On top of that, you can insert Smack Attack on the master buss to control transients in the full mix.
Components
WaveShell technology enables us to split Waves processors into smaller plugins, which we call components. Having a choice of components for a particular processor gives you the flexibility to choose the configuration best suited to your material. Smack Attack Transient Shaper has two components:
- Smack Attack Mono: mono-in to mono-out
- Smack Attack Stereo: stereo-in to stereo-out
WaveSystem Toolbar
Use the bar at the top of the plugin to save and load presets, compare settings, undo and redo steps, and resize the plugin. To learn more, click the icon at the upper-right corner of the window and open the WaveSystem Guide.
Quick Start Guide
For the most part, getting the sound you want is a matter of experimenting with the controls and learning how each affects the transients and the overall sound. We do, however, suggest the following steps as a starting point.
Part One: Attack
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Adjust the Attack Level up or down. Note that the orange line, the gain change graph, changes as you adjust Attack. Turn the Attack Level to its extreme settings to understand how it affects the transient sound.
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Experiment with the Shape and Duration of the attack. The narrower the shape, the more “surgical” the attack will sound. A wider shape can warm up the attack sound. Duration determines how long it takes attack gain to return to unity.
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Set the Sensitivity to the level where attack processing will begin. The green lines in the Audio Graph illustrate the Attack Sensitivity threshold setting. Transients within the lines will be processed, those outside will not.
Part Two: Sustain -
Use Sustain Level to control the increase or decrease the level of the sustain (release). The resulting gain change is shown as the orange line in the Audio Graph, along with the gain change from Attack processing. Higher Sustain settings usually yield more air.
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Listen to the sustain, using different Shapes and Durations, to understand how these controls affect the sound of the transient and of the surrounding sound. There are three Sustain shapes, each with different a behavior.
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Set the Sustain Sensitivity. This determines the threshold for Sustain processing.
Part Three: Output -
Mix sets the mix between the processed transient sound and the dry signal.
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Use the Output control to set the output level of the plugin. The Output control precedes the Guard setting in the
signal flow, so it will influence the behavior of the three Guard modes. -
Guard provides three methods of containing output level, each with different results. Try them all!
Interface
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Audio Graph: Provides visual feedback of transient processing.
Blue = Input waveform; Green = Attack sensitivity;
Yellow = Sustain sensitivity; Orange = Gain change -
Attack Level: Sets boost or reduction of processed transient.
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Attack Sensitivity: Sets the threshold for attack detection.
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Sustain Level: Sets the gain of sustain processing
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Sustain Sensitivity: Sets threshold for sustain detection.
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Attack Shape: Sets the shape of the processed transient. The first two tools are best suited for drums; the third shape is intended for other instruments as well as drums.
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Attack Duration: Sets the length of attack processing. Sustain Shape: Defines the curve of the sustain area. Three different shapes are available.
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Sustain Duration: Sets length of sustain gain processing. Mix: Parallel mix: Dry/Wet
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Output: Add or reduce the output signal.
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Guard: Three modes: 1) Off, 2) Clip with -0.1 dBfs ceiling, 3) Limit with -0.1 dBfs ceiling. When the Guard is off, a red light indicates overs.
Controls
Sensitivity and Level Controls
Attack Level (left)
Controls the amount of level increase or decrease applied to any transient
that exceeds the Attack Sensitivity setting. Increasing this value results in
exaggerated, punchy transient attacks. Reducing the value softens the
transient attack and usually provides a warmer transient sound.
Range: -100 to +100
Value is indicated in the middle of the control.
Sustain Level (right)
Controls the amount of level increase or decrease applied to the sustain of a
transient. Higher settings tend to increase the “air” introduced by the
transient.
Range: -100 to +100
Value is indicated in the middle of the control.
Attack Sensitivity
Sets the threshold range for Attack processing. The attack of any sound that
has been identified as a transient and falls within this sensitivity range
will be processed. Smack Attack processes only transients, not the other
elements of the sound, so Attack Sensitivity does not apply to non-transient
sounds.
Range: 0100,
Value is displayed when the control is touched.
Sustain Sensitivity
Sets the threshold at which Sustain processing will begin. Higher Sensitivity
settings usually yield a warmer sound with more “air.” Sustain Sensitivity and
Sustain Level are highly interactive, so it’s important to experiment with
both controls when designing the sustain sound.
Range: 0100,
Value is displayed when the control is touched.
The Attack and Sustain controls greatly influence each other. Change one control setting and you will likely influence how the other controls affect the sound. Experiment.
Audio Graph
This display shows all essential gain information.
Input audio is shown as a solid-blue peak waveform. This makes it easy to see large transients and their relative gains. There are two pairs of lines that indicate the Sensitivity settings for Attack and Sustain. These are the thresholds of transients processing. The green lines show the level at which attack processing will begin. When Attack Sensitivity is set very low, the lines are far apart, indicating that only the loudest transients will be processed. With higher Sensitivity settings, these lines are closer together, indicating that smaller transients can be being processed. Sustain Sensitivity shows the threshold of where Sustain processing will be triggered. Its function is identical to the Attack Sensitivity indicator.
The orange trace represents the gain change introduced by the Smack Attack
processor.
When Attack and Sustain are both set to 0, there is no gain change, so the orange Gain Change line is flat.
Increasing Attack Level results in a positive gain change indicator, as seen on the left. Negative Attack Level is displayed as downward gain change.
Sustain processing is typically longer than attack processing. Increasing
Sustain Level, as seen on the left, or reducing it, tends to move the entire
gain change structure up or down the graph.
Shape and Duration Controls
The shape and duration of the attack and sustain can greatly influence the impact and texture of a transient. Sharper tools yield effects “hug” the transient, enabling punchier sounds and opening up possibilities in hard-edged creative processing. Wider tools produce a wider attack that warms up the transient.
Attack Shapes
The attack shapes allow shaping the “edginess” of the transient attack. These
shapes are not completely symmetrical: the rise is always faster than fall.
Needle
A very sharp rise and fall of the attack processing. The attack remains very
tight. This shape is particularly well suited for accenting hard, crisp drum
sounds.
Nail
A very sharp shape, similar to the Needle but with a slower, sloped fall.
Although this is a very quick shape, is somewhat softer than the Needle. It’s
well suited for drums.
Blunt
This is a softer shape. Its rise is somewhat milder, and its fall is
appreciably slower. This is intended for all instruments, not just drums, but
it can also deliver interesting and creative drum effects.
The needle and nail shapes have an instantaneous rise when the attack is sensed. The blunt shape has a slower rise.
Attack Duration
This sets the length of attack processing, measured from initial rise. Longer
durations make for warmer transients; shorter durations produce a spikier
sound.
Range: 0.5 ms500 ms
Value is displayed when the control is touched.
Sustain Shapes
The Sustain shapes help you control the way that transient processing
finishes. Each provides a different shape for the way that the processed
Sustain signal falls.
Linear
The sustain decays at a linear rate. This can provide a continuous, even,
return to unity. Intended for drums.
Non-Linear
Depending on the Sustain Level setting, the non-linear tool can provide a
rapid or gentle curve. Intended primarily for drums.
Soft Linear
This shape has a softer peak and a linear fall. It moves the attack sound
toward the tail of the transient. This tool can be used with drums but is
ideally suited for other instruments.
The Linear and non-linear shapes are intended for use with drums, but you can achieve interesting creative effects when using them with other instruments. Results can be unpredictable, but you may find just the sound you’re looking for.
Sustain Duration
Sustain Duration is the time it takes the gain to return to unity after the
attack gain begins to fall.
Range: 30 ms1000 ms
Value is displayed when the control is touched.
Output Controls
The output section provides dry/wet mix and output level controls. There is also a selector for determining how over-level output signals are treated.
Nix
Sets the percentage of dry (unprocessed) vs. wet (processed) output.
Range: 0100%
Value is displayed when the control is touched.
Output
Controls the output level of the plugin.
Range: ±24 dB
Value is displayed in the center of the control.
The Output controls can greatly affect the final sound, especially for
Attacks. Boosting the level of attacks can boost the output signal levels
above 0 dBfs.
Guard
The Guard section lets you choose how to treat high-level output signals.
There are three modes:
Limit Clip: Dynamic range is controlled with a fast limiter. Level is
limited to -0.1 dBfs.
Clip: Signal above 0dBfs is clipped without changing its dynamic range.
This saturates the over-level spikes, which changes their sound character.
Level is limited to -0.1 dBfs.
Off: When Guard is off, there is no limiting or clipping of the output
signal. A red light indicates when the output is over level. It’s unlikely
that a signal will clip internally, even when the over-level light is
illuminated. It’s important to consider the rest of the processing chain when
setting the output level. If Smack Attack is part of a series of plugins, and
the Guard is off, use the Output Level control to set a level that is
appropriate for the other processors and the D/A converter.
Signal flow in the Output section is: MixOutput LevelGuard.
Output Level Indicator
In the Limit or Clip modes, the meter displays gain reduction.
Meter range: 0 to -40 dB
When Guard is off, the meter displays output level above 0 dBfs.
Meter range: 0 to 40 dB
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Read User Manual Online (PDF format) >>