Transient Shaper Plugin Released by Kilohearts

Kilohearts, makers of award-winning audio plugins, just expanded their kHs Toolbox collection with a new plugin called Transient Shaper – a new dynamics processor that helps shape the initial attack of a sound, also known as the transient.

“If you’ve ever tried to get that exact snap or punch in a snare or tame the pluck of a guitar with a compressor you know that while it might be possible it’s often pretty fiddly”… “Transient Shaper gives a very direct control of the envelope, and is superior to a compressor for transient control.” – says Anders Stenberg, CTO

Transient Shaper enables separate control of the initial transient and the tail of a sound, controlled by the Attack and Sustain knobs respectively.

• Increasing the Attack can add presence and bring a sound closer while dialing it down can push it back and make it blend into the mix.
• Adjusting the Sustain can emphasize a reverb, or remove it altogether for a drier sound. With a clear graph of how the envelope is affected, getting quick results is easier than ever.

Amplifying the transient of a sound, which often means amplifying what’s already the amplitude peak, can, unfortunately, bring the meters into the red. To control this, Transient Shaper offers to optionally clip the output using a soft clipper, or control the transient with its third main knob; Pump. Instead of amplifying the attack, the Pump temporarily lowers the gain following a transient. This emphasizes the attack without actually increasing gain, very much like what a limiter or compressor does but with more direct and visual control.

“Other transient tools often control excess gain through slapping on limiters, but it can be hard to know how these affect the envelope. We chose to instead put this control front and center, quite literally, showing exactly how the envelope will be shaped.” – says Per Svanberg, CEO.

Transient Shaper follows Kilohearts’ trademark clean and to-the-point design, making it quick to work with both as a professional and hobbyist. Like all Kilohearts effect plug-ins (like Disperser, Faturator) it supports the Snapin plugin format and can be loaded in the award-winning modular host Multipass for multiband transient control. Read: Multipass Review

Transient Shaper is available from February 1st, 2017 for $39 / €39 as 32-bit and 64-bit, VST and AU plugins for Windows and Mac (1.69 MB download, EXE/DMG installer), also as Rack Extension for Reason (more details below).

Download Transient Shaper