- Compressor and limiter
- Enhancing transients
Enhancing transients
Enhancing transients with a compressor in music production means emphasizing the initial, fast-moving part of a sound or a musical note. Transients are the brief moment at the beginning of a sound or musical note that determines its sharpness, attack, and impact. Compressors can be used to enhance the transients of a sound by selectively boosting the initial transient while reducing the rest of the sound.
To enhance transients using a compressor, the attack time is adjusted. The attack time determines how quickly the compressor reacts to the input signal. By setting a shorter or longer attack time, less or more of the initial high-volume sound is passed through before its volume is reduced. This has the effect of emphasizing the start of a sound ('transient') less or more.
By emphasizing the transients of a sound using a compressor, the sound becomes more pronounced and dynamic, allowing it to cut through a mix better. This technique is commonly used in genres such as electronic dance music and hip hop, where a sharp, punchy sound is desired.
You may also be interested in...
- Gating (under Sidechaining, gating, ducking and compression)
Gating is turning on or off one sound source completely, in response to another signal.
- Example (under Risers, fallers, sweeps & ear candy)
a riser (white noise with a gradually opening filter) introducing a new part of the song.
- Oscillator 3: sub/super-oscillator (under Oscillators)
This third oscillator can be configured to either follow oscillator 1 or oscillator 2.
- Emulating vinyl (under Lo-fi & vintage analog and digital emulation)
Use a negative value to have the vinyl crackle only play when the sequencer is playing patterns or songs.
- Sound design (under Guides, tutorials and docs)