Waves

A so-called “secret weapon” for mixing
drums and other percussive instruments,
Waves’ painfully-titled new transient shaper
plugin (VST/AU/AAX/RTAS) is a spiritual
successor to their classic Trans-X, with a few
clever tricks up its sleeve. Like any transient
shaper, Smack Attack enables independent
boosting and/or attenuation of the attack and
release portions of the transients in the
incoming signal – the hit of a drum, pluck of a
string, etc – in order to give it more or less
impact and punch. However, it’s in the detection
of those transients and shaping of the gain
control envelope that Smack Attack really sets
itself apart.
Smack, crackle and pop
The amount of gain reduction or increase applied
to the two transient portions is determined by
the big Attack and Sustain knobs. Used on a drum
loop, for example, with Attack at 100 and Sustain
at -100, you get extremely pronounced initial
hits with hardly any tail; while with Attack at
-100 and Sustain at 100, the release comes to
the fore and the hit drops back, resulting in a
pumping, sucking sound that comes across as
if each hit is ducking itself.
That is, of course, standard functionality for
this kind of plugin, but an extra dimension of
control is introduced by the Attack and Sustain
Sensitivity dials, which let you set amplitude
thresholds above which identiied transients will
be processed. By lowering the Sensitivities (thus
raising the thresholds), you could, for example,
take some bite out of only the loudest kick drum
hits in a loop, ensure that mic spill in a multitrack
kit doesn’t get boosted along with the main signal,
or get scientiic with the processing transparency.
Helpfully, all of this – and the efects of every
other control, too (see Throwing shapes) – is
visualised in the excellent real-time display,
which shows the input as a blue waveform, gain
changes as a continuous orange line, and
Sensitivity thresholds in green and yellow.
At the inal output, the Guard control
activates a Limiter or Clipper (or neither), for
preventing overloads relatively transparently or
smashing them into the roof. Both have a ceiling
ixed at -0.1dBFS, and an animated collar
provides metering of gain reduction (or overs
when Guard is set to Of). The Mix knob,
meanwhile, brings parallel processing into the
picture, allowing extreme transient boosts to be
blended with the dry signal for a hearty
alternative to New York-style compression. It’s a
hugely efective feature that we’re surprised
isn’t built into more transient shaping plugins.
Apart from the lack of a multiband option, as
included with Trans-X, we can’t really fault
Smack Attack. The Sensitivity and Shape
controls are fantastic for detailed deining of
transients, the display is genuinely assistive, the
Mix control is joyous, and coming from Waves, it
almost goes without saying that the sound
quality and precision are exceptional. Despite
the percussive slant of the marketing blurb,
drums are by no means the only valid target for
it, either – it does a sterling job of fronting up (or
down) basses, pianos, guitars, synth plucks, and
anything else with a transient component.
Probably the deepest transient shaping efect
ever committed to code, Smack Attack requires
a bit more engagement than other equivalent
plugins, but the results it delivers are well worth
the efort.
Web www.waves.com
W a v e s
Smack Attack $69
Can Waves’ second transient-shaping plugin compete
with its own sibling, let alone the rest of the market?
Verdict
For Adjustable triggering thresholds
Control envelope shaping
Guard modes
Dry/Wet mix
Sounds fantastic
Against No multiband option
Rather more involved than
other shapers
There are plenty of superb transient
shapers out there, but none have quite
the same level of inesse as Waves’
colourful new take on the concept
9 / 1 0
Alternatively
eaReckon TransReckon
210 » 9/10 » €59
Also features adjustable
Attack and Sustain Length
Schaack Audio Transient Shaper
127 » 9/10 » €59
Also features three Attack
and three Release shapes
Smack Attack ofers loads of control over the
shape of the Attack and Sustain envelopes.
Under each gain knob are three Shape
buttons, each one establishing a particular
level modulation proile.
The irst two Attack Shapes (Needle and
Nail) are designed with drums in mind,
boasting a very fast rise/fall and two angles
of recovery slope; the third (Blunt) is slower
at both ends, intended for other instruments.
The Sustain Shapes comprise Linear, Non-
Linear and Soft Linear. The curve of Non-
Linear is afected by the Sustain level, and
Soft Linear is again intended for use on
non-percussion sources. The lengths of the
Shapes are adjusted with Duration sliders:
0.5500ms Attack, 301000ms Sustain.
With such a ine degree of envelope
control, Smack Attack really does take you
to places other transient shapers can’t,
although you’ll have to put a few more
mouse clicks in to get there!
Throwing shapes
2
MINUTES
WITH…
VIDEO
96 / COMPUTER MUSIC / September 2017
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