Table of Contents
What is a transient shaper?
A transient shaper is a tool designed to tweak the envelope of a sound, generally coming with two main parameters (Attack and Sustain), plus other optional ones.
The main purpose of a transient shaper is either increasing or attenuating the attack and/or sustain of a sound.
So, traditional transient shapers don’t come with time settings like most other dynamic processors, but most recent plug-ins on the market offer some more control over the envelope curve and also multi-band processing.
Its main application is on drums, but it can actually be used on whatever percussive or plucked kind of sound.
Along with compression and gating, transient shaping can help make a sound fit nicely in the mix.
Given the nature of the processing, some transient shapers come with a built-in limiter or soft clipper to prevent the signal to get over 0dBFS.
The following list gathers reviews based on personal experience, peers experience and reviews by other creators found online.
Free
These plug-ins are all available for free. However, this doesn’t make them not worthy of your attention.
Ableton Drum Buss
Enjoy Ableton users! If you ever overlooked it because of the multitude of knobs all packed in a small interface, Drum Buss is a nice free option to work on transients. This plugin is quite aggressive and I suggest starting from presets to get a grasp on what each parameter is doing.
Auburn Sounds Couture
This is the best free option available online in terms of the variety of features available, with a Full Edition that comes at around 20$.
The saturation module is insanely versatile, the free detector settings give it an important edge in terms of control, and the x1/x2 /x3 toggles allow for exploring all the nuances of transient shaping (from the softest to the most extreme).
The Bass detect function allows setting how the plugin reacts to low frequencies.
Probably the only limit stands in the Front/Back knob as it doesn’t offer control on the attack and the sustain separately.
Flux Bittersweet v3
Along with Evo In, this is the plugin that mostly built a name for Flux. Accuracy is all this plugin is about. The big knob allows for precise setting, and the other sliders and toggles offer a number of nuances that make it a no-brainer to download if you aren’t willing to spend a dime.
Kilohearts Transient Shaper
Are you looking for a free transient shaper with an incredibly intuitive interface? This is just it!
The Pump feature is simply genius as it allows to highlight the transient by attenuating the portion of audio right after it. Must have.
Budget
These plug-ins are all for sale. We can say that they’re all worth more than what they cost. These plug-ins are among the most affordable professional options available, sometimes even outperforming or performing at par with top-tier alternatives.
Schaack Audio Technologies Transient Shaper
Another excellent freeware that’s been awarded by Computer Music with its Performance Award. This transient shaper is rather simple, but what makes it really good for a piece of freeware is the three Attack and Release shapes, an analog saturation stage, Input and Output VU meters, and the CPU efficiency.
Joey Sturgis Tones Transify
Joey Sturgis Tones is an interesting developer mainly focused on Rock and Metal music.
The GUI and the ease of use is quite raw, but it serves well the genres it’s targeted to. While not exclusively a plugin for Rock and Metal music, it certainly promotes a workflow that’s better suited for that kind of sound.
4 bands available, each one with its own clipping stage instead of a full-band one.
Native Instruments Transient Master
In all its simplicity, Transient Master offers control on Attack, Sustain, and Gain, plus a limiter and a Smooth option which is specifically designed for guitars.
It’s included in every project of mine since it’s easy to use, it does the job, and it doesn’t fool me with graphics.
Softube Transient Shaper
Here we have an interesting one. What makes this plugin stand out for its price point is the option to affect the whole spectrum or only the highs or lows. The same can be said for the Fast/Slow toggle for the attack, which makes the transient design more nuanced.
The way this plugin has been made makes it a smooth option for vocal processing too.
Get it at Plugin Boutique
Surreal Machines Impact
Here we come to the best-marketed plugin. The interactive website speaks for itself since you can test the plugin inside your browser. (https://www.surrealmachines.com/impact-demo/)
The interface is kind of unusual for this type of processor, but it definitely makes sense given the huge variety of parameters available.
Impact packs in a saturation module which can be placed in three different positions of its internal chain (along with the EQ and the transient shaper), and 4 saturation types.
You also have the option to pick between wide and narrow crossovers, and the crossovers can be moved wherever you prefer, with the midrange band spanning down to 63Hz and up to 8kHz.
Probably the plugin with the best value for price.
Get it at Plugin Boutique
Waves Smack Attack
What makes this plugin stand out from the majority of other alternatives is the variety of controls available. The Sensitivity knobs and the Duration faders offer a level of control that is quite appreciable. Also, being able to choose between limiting and clipping (or anything at all) at the final stage allows for shaping sounds without employing additional plugins in your DAW.
The value is insanely high for its price point, but it might not be suited for people who don’t want to deal with too many controls.
XLN Audio DS-10 Drum Shaper
This is probably the best-designed transient shaper GUI-wise. It features a lot of options all packed in an easy-to-use interface.
Having three different modes for Kick, Snare, and Bus multiplies the value of this plugin by 3.
The same goes for the Classic, Natural, and Smooth modes.
Also, the Mojo knob is an optional plus that can help achieve a more authentic and rich sound.
Get it at Plugin Boutique
Honorable mentions
- W.A. Production Imprint
- Eareckson TransReckon
- Voxengo Transgainer
- Soundspot Orbit
Top Tier
These are the elite of the digital realm. They require some commitment to your wallet, but the number of features and the quality of performance they offer is among the very best you can find around nowadays. The sonic character is the main thing you should consider when pulling the trigger on the buy button.
All these tools will make your mix sound the way you want. They don’t have the magic of doing the job for you, but they will definitely help shape the tone in the best way possible.
Eventide Audio Punctuate
I’m not much into this plugin personally due to workflow and GUI reasons, but it’s still a monster. Having control on transients with so many bands (up to 26) is insane.
If you’re a mastering engineer and need to surgically address transients, this is what you should go for.
Get it at Plugin Boutique
iZotope Neutron Transient Shaper
This plugin has a few notable pluses which are the multi-band processing with easy-to-drag band slopes, helpful graphics representing how the envelope is being shaped on each band, the envelope shape toggle, and, last but not least, the Mix knob which allows going for more accurate settings since the fader ride of both the Attack and Sustain is minuscule and hard to fine-tune.
Get it at Plugin Boutique
Oeksound Spiff
Spiff was originally meant as a speech-correction tool, and it turned out to be an incredibly versatile piece of software. Spiff is an adaptive transient processor that lets you cut or boost transients with great detail. Spiff analyzes the incoming signal and recognizes when and where transients appear adaptively. Its unique approach to transients makes it a unicorn in the audio plugins world, and even with only 2 plugins, that’s already the standard in terms of expectations that we have from Oeksound.
SPL Transient Designer Plus
One of the most renowned transient shapers. While the interface offers a handful of parameters, with the channel link option and the GR meter being the most notable ones, I’m not sure it’s really worth the price when compared to most other alternatives.
Honorable mentions
- Accusonus Beatformer
- Zynaptiq Unchirp
- Zynaptiq Unmix Drums
- Sonible entropy:EQ⁺
- molecularbytes AtomicTransient
- Metric Halo MH TransientControl
- Sonnox Oxford Envolution
- Sonnox Oxford Transmod
- IK Multimedia One
- Boz Digital Labs Transgressor
- SSL Native Drumstrip
