Old way of transient shaping? How was it done before transient shaping tools exist?

[Autobot]

I wonder how was transient shaping done before specialized tools where around?
What are the ways with more conventional tools?
Ideas? Approaches?

Thanks

[Passing Bye]

Compression?

[Autobot]

Compression?

But what kind of? To raise the Attack one need rather an expander or? And how to work on the Sustain? Also an expander but with slow attack and slow release?

[No_Use]

But what kind of? To raise the Attack one need rather an expander or? And how to work on the Sustain? Also an expander but with slow attack and slow release?

You can also raise attack/transient with a (downwards) compressor, if you set it so that the transients slips through (tweak attack) so the comp works only on the body of the sound.

[Hermetech Mastering]

The medium itself used to shape the transients (e.g. tape), and compressors have been around since the 50s. Hit a transformer hard and it has nice peak eating qualities too. I still do it this way. What specialised tools are you talking about?

[Trancit]

The medium itself used to shape the transients (e.g. tape), and compressors have been around since the 50s. Hit a transformer hard and it has nice peak eating qualities too. I still do it this way. What specialised tools are you talking about?

Even if a transient shaper has the ability to tame the initial transients it´s use was mostly to raise the first transients... complete different story...

Second, the special feature of a transient shaper is to be able to treat the attack and the sustain part differently even if you can reach the similar results with other tools...

[Hermetech Mastering]

The medium itself used to shape the transients (e.g. tape), and compressors have been around since the 50s. Hit a transformer hard and it has nice peak eating qualities too. I still do it this way. What specialised tools are you talking about?

Even if a transient shaper has the ability to tame the initial transients it´s use was mostly to raise the first transients... complete different story...

Second, the special feature of a transient shaper is to be able to treat the attack and the sustain part differently even if you can reach the similar results with other tools...

Sorry, I am not following you at all. A "transient shaper", is, by definition, something that allows you to "shape transients". All the things I mention, do. Maybe it's semantics? Again, what specialised tools are people talking about? Things like Dominion? I was just trying to answer the OPs query, but without a definition of terms, we will probably just keep misunderstanding one another.

Back to the OP, I'd imagine a deliberate shaping of transients (as opposed to being a side effect of the medium such as tape, like I mentioned before) was done in the past with various analogue compressors and limiters. I still do it this way now. I'm usually using my Chandler Germanium compressors with a longer Attack to let the initial transient through, and then it starts to clamp down a little on the body/Sustain of the sound, and then comes back up again with the Release control. I wrote an article on it here:

http://hermetechmastering.com/compressors.html

In this way you can increase the initial transient, leading to more punch/vibe/groove with the track etc., as opposed to the more common perception of compression as absolutely smashing/obliterating them.

[MogwaiBoy]

Compression, expansion and gating.

[Unaspected]

Whilst I have a transient shaper, I find that I rarely use it - still favouring traditional methods, such as compression. Optical compression is great for this but any compressor that offers sufficient control can address transients.

[GRUMP]

Whilst I have a transient shaper, I find that I rarely use it - still favouring traditional methods, such as compression. Optical compression is great for this but any compressor that offers sufficient control can address transients.

Same here. Transient Shapers sound unnatural to me. Chirurgical.

Instead of cleaning the Sound up - shaping, EQing, whatever - I rather try to give it some Soul and Feel to make you not even think about those little Details. My "Noise" Folder on my HD is quiet extensive. It contains everything from Ambiences over Circuits up to processed Noise for either Oneshot or Multisamples an makes me think a litttle bit different concerning "Dynamics".

Concerning your Question: the initial Position and the Targets were completely different "back then". As you can hear quiet well in many 70/80s Productions you´d have used completely different Methods and Tools back then. Why not stack the Snare with a Shaker? How about a long Reverb Tail? Bus Compression! [...]

Me personally I didn´t have a seperate Compressor when I started and as you can imagine I helped myself with Envelopes, Ghost Copys with an alternative Envelope and so on.

[DJ Warmonger]

"transient shaper", is, by definition, something that allows you to "shape transients"

A transient shaper is a device that detects transients in first place. Compressor, and a plenty of other devices, can also affect transients - but indirectly. That's the problem with compressors, their "attack" and "threshold" settings do not correspond to any actual "transients" in incoming signal. A chirp signal for instance can have audible transients, but constant level which a simple compressor won't pick.

On the other hand, transient shaper can pick transients regardless of level of the incoming signal. That's something compressor cannot do on its own, it works only for set threshold.

Even if a transient shaper has the ability to tame the initial transients it´s use was mostly to raise the first transients

This, also.

[Bouroki]

The DBX160 is pretty much an awesome transient shaper for drums and bass There was also the manipulation/trickery of tape companders and such like the one in Abbey Road Saturator.

[Trancit]

"transient shaper", is, by definition, something that allows you to "shape transients"

A transient shaper is a device that detects transients in first place. Compressor, and a plenty of other devices, can also affect transients - but indirectly. That's the problem with compressors, their "attack" and "threshold" settings do not correspond to any actual "transients" in incoming signal. A chirp signal for instance can have audible transients, but constant level which a simple compressor won't pick.

On the other hand, transient shaper can pick transients regardless of level of the incoming signal. That's something compressor cannot do on its own, it works only for set threshold.

Even if a transient shaper has the ability to tame the initial transients it´s use was mostly to raise the first transients

This, also.

This...

Sorry, I am not following you at all. A "transient shaper", is, by definition, something that allows you to "shape transients". All the things I mention, do. Maybe it's semantics? Again, what specialised tools are people talking about? Things like Dominion? ...

Yes exactly like Dominion...

Tbh I am very surprised that someone with "... Mastering" in his name seems to never have heard of the terminology "Transient Shaper"...
Where have you been the last 25 years??? Even if someone doesn´t like these devices, there was basically no way to not hear from them...

I mean the first ones which were released as hardware devices more than 25 years ago... I don´t know who was first...SPL Transient designer maybe ... maybe TC Finalizer...

[Hermetech Mastering]

Like I said, just semantics. No need to be rude with the personal attacks. I've been an extremely successful full time mastering engineer for more than a decade, and have never found a use for one, under your definition. Compressors I use all the time, and under my definition, they are "transient shapers".

[Dark Fiber]

Tbh I am very surprised that someone with "... Mastering" in his name seems to never have heard of the terminology "Transient Shaper"...
Where have you been the last 25 years??? Even if someone doesn´t like these devices, there was basically no way to not hear from them...

I mean the first ones which were released as hardware devices more than 25 years ago... I don´t know who was first...SPL Transient designer maybe ... maybe TC Finalizer...

Unnecessarily rude. It's not a black or white discussion. There are different ways to achieve the same goal.