MolecularBytes ‘Atomic Transient’: The Pioneer of Audio Plugin for Polyphonic Multi-Channel Transient Design
With Atomic Transient it is now possible to process transients based on ‘note-based’ envelope shaping in polyphonic audio materials such as piano or guitar tracks
MolecularBytes ‘Atomic Transient’: The Pioneer of Audio Plugin for Polyphonic Multi-Channel Transient Design
With Atomic Transient it is now possible to process transients based on ‘note-based’ envelope shaping in polyphonic audio materials such as piano or guitar tracks
MolecularBytes ‘Atomic Transient’: The Pioneer of Audio Plugin for Polyphonic Multi-Channel Transient Design
With Atomic Transient it is now possible to process transients based on ‘note-based’ envelope shaping in polyphonic audio materials such as piano or guitar tracks
Atomic Transient is the first multi-channel ‘transient control’ audio plugin in the market processing polyphonic elements in audio recordings. Atomic Transient not just handles typical monophonic percussion patterns but also handles polyphonic audio signals such as pianos, guitars, or mixes with various instruments. So with this feature it is possible to process every polyphonic ‘note’ by its own time-base without touching other sounding notes. In Atomic Transient, transients are detected by a very accurate and level-independent detection algorithm. The detection of transients can be restricted to a selected frequency range so that a transient is only triggered for selected audio material. Atomic Transient provides three parallel processing channels. Every channel can detect and process transients in its own frequency range and uses a different effect to the audio signal. There are two types of effect processor in Atomic Transient - ‘Envelope’ (ADSR) and ‘Filter’. The Envelope effect is a powerful tool to change the dynamics of the signal and the Filter effect provides modulation effects based on LFO-moving filter. Atomic Transientcomes with over 160 factory presets and is available as VST, AudioUnits, and AAX for macOS and Windows system.
Main Structure and Functions
Atomic Transient makes it possible to remove, reduce or amplify drum sounds from polyphonic audio tracks or sample loops. Independent input and effect controls can be used to selectively edit specific instruments such as snare drums or hi-hats. The envelope of polyphonic instruments such as guitars or pianos can be changed just as easily as changing dynamics of drum patterns. With Atomic Transient, it is now possible to process transients of polyphonic audio signals based on ‘note-based’ envelope changes or filter effects. Let’s take a look at the major features of the interface to quickly catch up the use of Atomic Transient.
▲ Spectral diagram (Trigger filter for channel 1, 2 and 3 with input signal and transient response)
When a transient is detected, Atomic Transient “triggers” the processing of that transient sound and all portions associated to it. A triggered transient results in processing the audio signal through an effect that begins at the moment of the trigger event. The live display on the main control panel visualizes the processing information of the signal and is split into two areas. The top part contains the ‘Spectral diagram’ of input signal with channel trigger filters. This display is mainly used to check and control the triggers. Every channel in Atomic Transient is represented in a different color. (Blue = Channel 1; Green = Channel 2; Yellow = Channel 3.) The detection of transients per channel can be limited by a spectral filter to a certain frequency band, so that a transient only reacts and is triggered on certain audio elements.
▲ Waterfall diagram (shows time past signal information (history))
The bottom part of the live display shows a history of time-based ‘Waterfall diagram’ of the signal. This diagram is mainly used to set and control the effect response. The color intensity of a channel corresponds to the signal strength. The time is displayed on the Y-axis, where the current signal is mapped to a high resolution in the upper range and the past signal is mapped to an increasingly low resolution in the lower range. The colored signal area shows the effect-processed output signal and the grayed signal area shows the not-processed (original or residual) signal. Triggered transients are visualized by horizontal lines in the color of the triggered channel.
▲ Trigger options
‘Trigger options’ provides controls to define how transients are detected and triggered by the audio signal. Users can adjust the threshold to match the audio signal so that the desired transients are optimally detected. ‘Auto threshold’ lets Atomic Transient automatically adjust the threshold to the optimum value for dynamic signals. In this case, the threshold is continuously changed according to the input signal so, for example, recurring drums and even note changes are automatically detected. ‘Min Time’ parameter controls the minimum time between two transients so as to avoid “double-triggering”. ‘Silence’ parameter is used to stop the transient and define a concrete end of processing it by setting a signal level as “silent”. So, users should increase the value for noisy signals. By turning on the ‘Polyphonic Mode’ you can activate the polyphonic detection and processing of the channel. Polyphonic Mode uses the properties of the frequency response of a signal to apply the effect to relevant spectral ranges after a transient or new tone has occurred. Polyphonic audio material like piano, guitar, or mix-downs can be processed ‘polyphonically’ such that already sounding tones are not influenced by new tones and the effect processing takes place separately for each sound of a note. This is comparable to the selective modification of the overlapping “notes” of an instrument or a track. Polyphonic Mode can also be used to separate individual drum sounds from a drum sequence or a mix-down. In this case, only the drum beats that have triggered a transient are processed and other beats (e.g. those of the hi-hat) that do not trigger a transient remain untouched or can be removed with the residual parameter. By activating ‘Listen’ mode, users will only hear the signal that the transient detection is working on. This function is helpful to determine the correct signal frequency of the transient signal that you want to detect transients for.
▲ Effect Mixer
The output of every single channel is mixed together to the main output afterwards. With ‘Mix’ parameters for every channel, you can control the effect output and frequency range of the effect. ‘Level’ and ‘Residual’ parameters are used to modify the ratio between effect and source signal.
▲ Effect settings (Envelope/ADSR Effect)
▲ Effect settings (Filter Effect)
In ‘Effect' settings, users can set all parameters to control the effect used by the transient processing for each channel. There are two provided effects available - ‘Envelope effect’ and ‘Filter effect’. The Envelope effect changes the amplitude of your signal over time. This effect can control the amplitude ‘dynamically’ (relative to current amplitude and time) and ‘statically’ (regardless of the current amplitude). A live display shows the amplitude of current signal with input and output signal modification. The Filter effect modifies frequency ranges dynamically via time-based LFOs. Using resonance setting, users can push the sound to a typical pithy character.
Atomic Transient supports parameter controlling via MIDI events, so users can assign various parameter knobs to different MIDI controllers. Atomic Transient can be run as a standalone application under Windows system.
Features
- Transient detection with input filter
- 3 independent processing channels
- Monophonic and Polyphonic processing
- ADSR envelope and LFO-Filter effects
- Channel mixer with output filter
- Graphical live displays to visualize signal, processing, and signal's ADSR
- Input and output level meter
- Gain and auto-gain modificators
- Auto threshold
- MIDI controlling + integrated MIDI learn
- Over 160 multi-purpose factory presets
- Preset browser, user- and factory- preset grouping, copy & paste presets to clipboard
- A/B program comparison, UNDO, REDO
- Resizable user interface and two different skins
*Note that a free trial version for macOS and Windows can be downloaded:here
MolecularBytes GbR.MolecularBytes GbR., founded by the twin-brothers AndrÈ Hugenroth and Frank Hugenroth, who have been involved in the development of music and audio software and methods since the early 1990s. Under the name MolecularBytes, a preview version of an elastic audio software was published at the end of 2005. The first commercial product was “AtomicReverb", and it was soon followed by “AtomicTransient". In addition to these effect plug-ins, now we are focusing on the completion of the audio editing software "Membrane".
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