The follow-up to oeksoundвЂ™s Soothe dynamic EQ, Spiff is built on the same conceptual foundations as its phenomenally successful sibling plugin, automatically identifying and targeting transients with the guidance of the Sensitivity, Decay and Sharpness controls, then either cutting or boosting them (itвЂ™s not meant or able to do both at the same time) to an extent determined by the Depth dial. Throw in a saturation stage for reining in excessive peaks, and you have a truly surgical solution for rebalancing transient-fronted signals of all kinds that never sounds anything less than fabulous. On top of that, Envolution incorporates filter circuits into its Transients and Sustain sections for frequency-based processing, each one switchable between tilt EQ and band-pass/notch modes, and proving useful for correctively exaggerating and/or reducing the amount of shaping applied across the frequency spectrum. You can audition the difference between the input and processed transient and sustain signals, too, which presents its own creative possibilities, such as pulling out the sustain signal to simulate negative-ratio compression This opens the whole thing up to incredibly precise dynamics sculpting, making it supremely viable for getting a grip on acoustic guitars, pianos and other instrumentation that demands processing transparency, as well as up for heading off into more unconventional territory. Setting SonnoxвЂ™s transient shaper вЂ“ which, despite the name, has absolutely nothing to do with impulse responses вЂ“ apart from the rest is the independent control it facilitates over the Attack, Hold and Release stages of the transient and sustain signals. Unarguably the most overtly creative plugin in our list, QuantumвЂ™s combination of detailed transient control and colourful multi-effects processing puts it in a class of its own, and comes together to form a hugely compelling sound design toolbox. 16 modules are onboard вЂ“ Compressor, EQ, Reverb, Phaser, Chorus, Convolution, Delay, Saturation, Enhancer, etc вЂ“ and the interface makes adding, rearranging and operating them quick and easy, with the controls for the selected module appearing in the centre panel. So far, so good, but WavesfactoryвЂ™s adventurous plugin then takes things in a whole other direction by enabling a range of high-quality effects to be independently applied to the divided attack and sustain signals. Three transient detection modes are provided (Drums, General and Soft) the Sensitivity, Decay and Hold knobs are used to adapt the algorithm to the shape of the source material if required and the waveform display makes it easy to see whatвЂ™s going on.

Like all transient shapers, Quantum starts by dividing the input signal into attack and sustain portions, both of which can be boosted and attenuated using the two big, obvious Volume knobs.

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