Wavesfactory releases Flash, a freeware transient shaper plugin for Windows and macOS.
Good quality freeware transient shapers are a little hard to come by.
You have great examples, like the formerly paid Kilohearts Transient Shaper. However, it does lack some key functions. Wavesfactory has decided to take its own crack (sorry) at things with the introduction of Flash.
Flash is a handsomely designed plugin with the same slick interface you can expect to find in the rest of Wavesfactory’s catalog.
At first glance, you have a simple attack and sustain knob. These are fairly common for folks used to a transient shaper. Turning the attack to the right greatly increases the perceived volume of the initial sound of your signal, and turning it to the left softens it.
This likewise goes for sustain, with the sound being far bolder as the knob goes right and the duration of the sound shortening with turning it to the left. It works quite well, and if that was all this transient shaper could do, it would still be worth a look.
Thankfully, Wavesfactory has opted to add a little more functionality to Flash.
You can blend your unaffected dry signal with the mix knob, so parallel processing is easily done. You can also decide whether to place the affected transients in the mid, side or some blend thereof. This works quite well for kick and snare, and I found some utility for it on clean guitars, too.
Probably the most immediately crucial feature is the inclusion of a clipper into the output path.
Affecting transients can greatly alter the gain of your signal and may result in overages. Engaging the clipper leaves it at a nice level without fear of going past 0 on the master.
All said, Flash is a wonderfully designed transient shaper plugin that’s well worth your time. It certainly does great on drums, but can also do some good work on guitars, keys, and other elements with a percussive element to them.
Flash is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST, VST3, AAX, and AU. Apple Silicon is natively supported, as well as older Intel-based Macs.
Download: Flash
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