Wavesfactory releases Flash — Free Transient Shaper

[wavesfactory]

Capture.PNGThe download site has been flagged as malicious in Microsoft Edge. Didn't have this issue with the earlier releases. I'm sure it's a false positive, but just putting it out there.

It's a false positive.

Take a look at this virustotal report on the file:
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/df08 ... ?nocache=1

[wavesfactory]

EDIT: Downloaded the 1.02 update from the website and that one works! Sustain knob now does what it is supposed to. However, 1.02 "finds a new update" even though this is the latest.. so now I have a spinning update icon going. No biggie though.

Fixed too.
Now you should just update once more from the plugin and that's it.

[jamcat]

I put this up against spL Transient Designer Plus, Newfangled Audio Punctuate, and Eventide Split EQ.

Flash performed the best. Totally natural sounding with no artifacts.

how about Kilohearts transient designer?

I didn’t try it against Kilohearts Transient Shaper.

I should mention that Eventide and Newfangled Audio both do a lot more than basic transient shaping, and as such they are more powerful algorithms than Flash. But they can be used very easily for straightforward transient shaping, particularly Split EQ.

But when used just for straight transient shaping, neither sound as natural as Flash. Split EQ in particular has a lot of artifacts here.

As for spL Transient Designer, it is modeled on the hardware processor of the same name from the late ‘90s. It can do more dramatic shaping than Flash, but once again, it doesn’t sound as natural, even when operating within Flash’s operational range. And when pushed further, Transient Designer starts getting pretty choppy.

If I’m looking to do something like transparently give a kick or snare little more natural punch without sounding processed, I’ll definitely be using Flash. The others still have their uses for more extreme effects and reshaping, but 9 times out of 10 what Flash does is probably what you’re looking for.

[Igro]

I put this up against spL Transient Designer Plus, Newfangled Audio Punctuate, and Eventide Split EQ.

Flash performed the best. Totally natural sounding with no artifacts.

how about Kilohearts transient designer?

I didn’t try it against Kilohearts Transient Shaper.

I should mention that Eventide and Newfangled Audio both do a lot more than basic transient shaping, and as such they are more powerful algorithms than Flash. But they can be used very easily for straightforward transient shaping, particularly Split EQ.

But when used just for straight transient shaping, neither sound as natural as Flash. Split EQ in particular has a lot of artifacts here.

As for spL Transient Designer, it is modeled on the hardware processor of the same name from the late ‘90s. It can do more dramatic shaping than Flash, but once again, it doesn’t sound as natural, even when operating within Flash’s operational range. And when pushed further, Transient Designer starts getting pretty choppy.

If I’m looking to do something like transparently give a kick or snare little more natural punch without sounding processed, I’ll definitely be using Flash. The others still have their uses for more extreme effects and reshaping, but 9 times out of 10 what Flash does is probably what you’re looking for.

Thanks, I will download now!

[jamcat]

I checked out Kilohearts Transient Shaper. I've had the Kilohearts free pack, but never tried the Transient Shaper before.

It's pretty similar to the spL Transient Designer, but it can sound even more extreme, and more jarring in it's most extreme settings. In more moderate settings I think it sounds a bit less obviously processed than spL. It's easier to dial in too much than it is to get a really transparent sound with it.

That's where it seems Flash really excels. Flash's strength is it's very quick to use and gives a natural rebalancing of transients and sustain. But it's not very adventurous, if that's what you're after.

[bmanic]

I agree. Flash sounds absolutely flawless for subtle transient enhancer duties (both adding and subtracting transients or sustain). It's probably the most natural sounding one I've heard to date in plugin form.

The SPL plugin unfortunately does not get very close to the actual hardware. I suspect in the hardware there is some internal clipping or saturation happening (or the unit I had was just old) because it was never as harsh and spiky as the plugin is. Then again, it wasn't exactly "transparent" either.. and those knobs are so finicky!

Anyhow, yes I 100% recommend absolutely everybody download Flash if you need a basic transient shaper. This one is truly good.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Thanks a lot Jesus! <3 This is fantastic.

I've sworn by Sonic Anomaly's free JS:Transpire for years, compared it to many others and always liked it the most. This seems to take the crown though. It sounds just as good and, unlike Transpire, has 0 latency.

And what's more it's the *only* proper threshold-less transient shaper I've tried which nulls to silence with all the controls neutral. Close enough to silence anyway, I'm reading about -145dB in reaper, which is absolutely unnoticeable.

Transpire (and quantum too, interestingly) aren't even close. Lots of treble passes the null, making them unsuitable for parallel processing. But Flash nulls to silence, so can be fed an EQ'd signal in parallel to add/remove transience in particular freq ranges for example. This will be hyper useful here. Big thanks for that.

[yzcoruhT]

Downloaded, compared to the Crack and... Flash rulez!

[Calagan]

Very quick test on some drums. Yep, indeed Flash is very natural sounding, and it's nice because it's a useful complement to other plugins (I own the SPL, Elysia, Softube, XLN and the NI ones).
And the features are great : variable mid/side mix, mix knob (not so often with transient shapers), hard clipping.
The only (small) issue I see is the GUI : it's a bit too large, with a lot of un-used space... And the metering is a bit strange : it seems it's not a peak meter, but it's still quicker than a VU or RMS meter. Whatever it is, it could be nice to have a numerical vision of the peak.
But these are little details : again, a nice offering from Wavesfactory...

[Olnium]

Thank you for this. I couldn't test it properly until now because of the audio cutting out, but now that's fixed, it sounds great.

[kPere]

Well, I on the other hand really don't like this one. It seems like it needs to gain staged very severely to work properly which isnt pleasing, also it doesn't sound any better then spl, therefore not keeping it..

Thanks for generosity though

[Calagan]

After some more testing, I must add that Flash is indeed the only transient shaper I've got (with the Kilohearts' one) not to modificate the audio when all knobs are set on zero (like @Andreya_Autumn noticed). I was shocked when I compared all my transient plugins, null testing them at zero settings (and trying to gain stage because some of them alter the output level at default settings). All of them but Kilohearts and WavesFactory make some strange modification to the audio (and by the way, the Kilohearts' one is truly an amazing one)
By the way, I don't get the post of kPere : all transient shapers are obviously modificating the output level, and Flash has 2 advantages on most other plugins : it has an output level knob (unlike Elysia and Kilohearts ones) and it's quite transparent and natural. I can't make it sound bad, and even on most extreme settings it's not as extreme as the competitors.
Very nice job Wavesfactory !!!

[zenvoxpop]

On top of everything everbody says, I simply ADORE Dieter Rams inspired GUI. I hope we'll see more products in this distinctive manner.

Not everything needs to look super flat and digital.