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Universal Audio SPL Transient Designer
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Universal Audio SPL Transient Designer
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« So simple, so effective. Don't know how I ever lived without it... »

Published on 02/28/12 at 22:37
Easy as pie, download the authorization after purchase and it's unlocked on your UAD card.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Rock solid!

OVERALL OPINION

Universal Audio has partnered with German company Sound Performance Lab (SPL) to bring you the Transient Designer, with its unique and compelling Differential Envelope Technology for shaping the dynamic response of a sound. Only two simple audio controls are required to allow you to effortlessly reshape the attack and sustain characteristics. SPL was the first company to design an analog solution for level-independent shaping of envelopes, allowing transients to be accelerated or slowed down and sustain prolonged or shortened.
You can shorten or lengthen the attack and sustain of percussive signals such as kick drum, snare or toms, easily take the bleed from open mics, or expand the room sound of overheads. The Transient Designer’s magic can be applied to virtually any other signal as well: Amplify or reduce the picking sound of an acoustic guitar, hold the sound of strings longer, or reduce the reverb time of a choir.
Containing only two primary controls, the UAD SPL Transient Designer is ex- tremely simple to operate. The technology behind the processor isn't as im- portant as how it sounds.
Attack enables amplification or attenuation of the attack of a signal by up to ±15 dB.
The Attack control circuitry uses two envelope gen- erators. One follows the shape of the original curve and adapts perfectly to the dynamic gradient. The second envelope generator produces an envelope with a slower attack. From the difference of both en-
velopes the VCA control voltage is derived. Positive Attack values emphasize attack events; negative values smooth out the attack envelopes of sound events.
Sustain enables amplification or attenuation of the
sustain of a signal by up to ±24 dB.
The Sustain control circuitry also uses two envelope generators. One follows the shape of the original curve and adapts perfectly to the dynamic gradi- ent. The second envelope generator produces an
envelope with a longer sustain. From the difference of both envelopes the VCA control voltage is derived. The gradient of the control voltage matches the time flow of the original signal. Positive Sustain values lengthen the sus- tain; negative values shorten the sustain.
Gain controls the signal level that is output from the plug-in. The available range is from –20 dB to +6 dB. The default value is 0 dB.

Use the Transient Designer on guitars to soften the sound by lowering the AT- TACK. Increase ATTACK for in-the-face sounds, which is very useful and works particularly well for picking guitars. Or blow life and juice into quietly played guitar parts.
Distorted guitars usually are very compressed, thus not very dynamic. Simply increase the ATTACK to get a clearer sound with more precision and better in- tonation despite any distortion.
Heavy distortion also leads to very long sustain. The sound tends to become mushy; simply reduce SUSTAIN to change that. If you, how- ever, want to cre- ate soaring guitar solos that would make even David Gilmour blush, just crank up the SUSTAIN control to the max and there you go.
With miced acoustic guitars you can emphasize the room sound by turning up SUSTAIN. If you want the guitars to sound more intimate and with less ambi- ence, simply reduce SUSTAIN