Published 29/4/08
Can it do to transient processing what the E2 De-esser did to dynamic EQ?
Eiosis first showed up on the SOS radar under a different name, Eliosound, with their Air EQ, an impressivley accurate and distinctly analogue-sounding equalisation plug-in. Then came the E2 De-esser, a tool that can strip the sibilance from a vocal track so it can be processed separately, which our reviewer described as “more successful than any other de-esser plug-in” (SOS April 2008 and on-line here), which is quite an accolade.
Eiosis’ latest product, the E2 Transienter, takes a similar approach to transient shaping as their last product did to de-essing. It detects to the incoming signal and identifies the transients so that they, or the signal that remains when they are stripped out, can be processed separately. In practice, this means that you can, for example, EQ only the attack part of a bass drum, or just the ring of a snare, allowing you to keep the opening, full-frequency ‘thwack’, but notch out any unwanted resonance from the release section of the sound.
The plug-in’s graphical user interface features a well-equiped detection section. Firstly, there’s a knob that allows the user to alter the software alogrithm’s sensitivity to transients, where the ‘min’ setting only detects the sharpest attacks and the ‘max’ setting reacts to much less severe changes in amplitude. A Time Sensitivity control determines how reactive the transient sensitivity circuit is, so when it’s set to ‘fast’, even attacks occurring in quick succession will still be detected. A release control determines how long the detected transient will be.
An interesting Process section lies within the cluster of Detection controls, and gives the user the option to choose Left/Right or Mid/Sides detection modes. This is useful for choosing from where in the stereo field the detection circuit gets its signal. The L-R mode is apparently good for processing standard stereo tracks, particularly those that have panned percussive sounds, such as is found in a tom fill, whereas the Mid/Sides mode is the best choice for when the centre of the stereo image is the target.
A further knob controls the stereo width, and it can be used to set the detector circuit to ‘listen’ in mono, while retaining the stereo nature of the source. Also included are simple high- and low-pass filters that apply only to the detection circuit. The Attacks section is where the user can EQ and change the level of the transients that have been highlighted by the detection circuit. It’s got a master level control as well as single-band parametric EQ, which can be set to have bell, high-shelf and resonant low-pass characteristics.
Finally, two listen buttons enable the user to do some very flexible things. When engaged, the listen button in the Attacks section allows the user to solo the transients, effectively turning the E2 Transienter into a noise gate — albeit a very well equipped one. But with the Non-Attacks Listen button engaged, the signal is inverted, so the attacks are muted and only the audio that falls outside the boundaries of the Detection section is heard.
With this in mind, using two instances of the plug-in with the same detection settings on duplicated audio tracks (with one listening to the attacks and one listening to non-attacks), you can imagine that some quite extreme effects, such as dance-style pumping compression, can be created.
Eiosis’ E2 Transienter will be shipping in May 2008. For more details, visit Eiosis’ web site.
www.eiosis.com
Eiosis first showed up on the SOS radar under a different name, Eliosound, with their Air EQ, an impressivley accurate and distinctly analogue-sounding equalisation plug-in. Then came the E2 De-esser, a tool that can strip the sibilance from a vocal track so it can be processed separately, which our reviewer described as “more successful than any other de-esser plug-in” (SOS April 2008 and on-line here), which is quite an accolade.
Eiosis’ latest product, the E2 Transienter, takes a similar approach to transient shaping as their last product did to de-essing. It detects to the incoming signal and identifies the transients so that they, or the signal that remains when they are stripped out, can be processed separately. In practice, this means that you can, for example, EQ only the attack part of a bass drum, or just the ring of a snare, allowing you to keep the opening, full-frequency ‘thwack’, but notch out any unwanted resonance from the release section of the sound.
The plug-in’s graphical user interface features a well-equiped detection section. Firstly, there’s a knob that allows the user to alter the software alogrithm’s sensitivity to transients, where the ‘min’ setting only detects the sharpest attacks and the ‘max’ setting reacts to much less severe changes in amplitude. A Time Sensitivity control determines how reactive the transient sensitivity circuit is, so when it’s set to ‘fast’, even attacks occurring in quick succession will still be detected. A release control determines how long the detected transient will be. An interesting Process section lies within the cluster of Detection controls, and gives the user the option to choose Left/Right or Mid/Sides detection modes. This is useful for choosing from where in the stereo field the detection circuit gets its signal. The L-R mode is apparently good for processing standard stereo tracks, particularly those that have panned percussive sounds, such as is found in a tom fill, whereas the Mid/Sides mode is the best choice for when the centre of the stereo image is the target.
A further knob controls the stereo width, and it can be used to set the detector circuit to ‘listen’ in mono, while retaining the stereo nature of the source. Also included are simple high- and low-pass filters that apply only to the detection circuit. The Attacks section is where the user can EQ and change the level of the transients that have been highlighted by the detection circuit. It’s got a master level control as well as single-band parametric EQ, which can be set to have bell, high-shelf and resonant low-pass characteristics.
Finally, two listen buttons enable the user to do some very flexible things. When engaged, the listen button in the Attacks section allows the user to solo the transients, effectively turning the E2 Transienter into a noise gate — albeit a very well equipped one. But with the Non-Attacks Listen button engaged, the signal is inverted, so the attacks are muted and only the audio that falls outside the boundaries of the Detection section is heard. With this in mind, using two instances of the plug-in with the same detection settings on duplicated audio tracks (with one listening to the attacks and one listening to non-attacks), you can imagine that some quite extreme effects, such as dance-style pumping compression, can be created.
Eiosis’ E2 Transienter will be shipping in May 2008. For more details, visit Eiosis’ web site.
www.eiosis.com
