SPL Designer vs Attacker vs Dominion

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Fri Jul 09, 2004 7:19 am

Hello to all!

I searched but couldnt locate any plugin demos on the new CW site...and by reading the "specs", I could not understand either...

So, what is the difference between the SPL Designer and the SPL Attacker? From what I imagine, the Attacker will not have the Sustain part but only the Attack part. Is this right?

If it is, then what is the difference between lets say:
a) to increase the Sustain part, using the Designer
b) to decrease the Attack part, using the Attacker, and then apply some gain to the signal???

Furthermore, I would like to ask you how do both SPL plugins compare to the free DigitalFishPhones Dominion?

Could someone be SO kind to upload some comparisons and hear for ourselves?

P.S. I am sorry if all this has been raised up many times before, but the Search function on the forum doesnt work for me!

(it yields ALL the most recent posts, no matter what you choose)

Thank you very much!

[ This Message was edited by: rodos1979 on 2004-07-09 08:21 ]

Post by **hubird** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 5:38 pm

yes yes an yes...

you're complicating the things...the Transient Designer is made to do exactly the manual trick for you with one knob, and millions times better than you can do by yourself.
It's a great tool which you can't reduce to the simple principle behind it, it's really an instrument and a great one!

The sustain is a plus, a combination of the minus and plus version a a perfect one, you might want to load more than a couple of them

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-07-11 18:40 ]

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Sun Jul 11, 2004 7:44 pm

Thank you hubird for replying!

Mmm, I m still a bit confused though..

Anyway...how do they compare to the Dominion VST? Are they A LOT better? Because 200 euros for the TD is 200 euros... and Dominion is free (and good too!

)...

On 2004-07-11 18:38, hubird wrote:
yes yes an yes...
you're complicating the things...the Transient Designer is made to do exactly the manual trick for you with one knob, and millions times better than you can do by yourself.
It's a great tool which you can't reduce to the simple principle behind it, it's really an instrument and a great one!
The sustain is a plus, a combination of the minus and plus version a a perfect one, you might want to load more than a couple of them

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-07-11 18:40 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 1:39 am

Yes, TD is ALOT better.

Attack part is pretty easy, dominion does it ok, and again. The attack is alot faster and more precise on TD. But when it comes to sustain, dominion fails.

The td doesn't add artifact, it can go to extreme settings, an still sounds natural.

To test quality of both, a drum loop with lots of cymbals is well adapted.

Try this on dominion:

Raise attack to help make it punch more on the Kick without clipping or adding volume or gain.

Then shorten the sustain to make disapear the trailling cymbals or hihats. Kind of clean the loop from to much noise.

You now have a loop that's fit cleanly in a mix, and still can make it's way thru, be heard, without compressing it to hell or cranking volume up.

Once you got TD try the same with it.

You'll very quicly realise how much BIG a difference in sound quality and grain there is.

Dominion is working "ok" for most needs, but once you tried td, that's it, dominion? You'll laught

It's one of the first plugin i bought for pulsar with VDAT, and to bad i can't use more than six of them....I would use lotsa them.

Post by **hubird** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 6:56 am

agree completely!
(I planned to mention the superiority of the TD over Dominion, but I forgot about it while writing).

coming back to your idea of handling the sustain part 'by your own...I guess this will work to some degree, but I'm sure the TD will do it more natural because the two parameters will work together more natural specially if extremer values are choosen.
As Marcus says, the Dominion stays far behind the TD, so if it was easy to get natural results the Dominion would do the trick as easy as the TD, while it doesn't!

I use the Attack of the TD more than the Sustain, so if mony is involved you could be satisfied with an AD.
You'll never regret having an extra AD when you later on buy a full TD

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2004-07-12 08:14 ]

rodos1979 · Post by **rodos1979** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 7:50 am

Thank you guys for replying!

On 2004-07-12 07:56, hubird wrote:
I use the Attack of the TD more than the Sustain, so if mony is involved you could be satisfied with an AD.
You'll never regret having an extra AD when you later on buy a full TD

I dont know... I tend to use the attack part more with Dominion too...so, I think what u suggest might be the best option... Its a pity however that there are no more demos on the CW site...

But probably I ll go for the Attacker at the moment!

You both have convinced me!

Stige · Post by **Stige** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 10:13 am

I've been running circles over Transient designer too, but I think my budget could allow only to buy Attacer.
As there is no sustain part in Attacer, does it use any less DSP than Transient designer? Also, can I run 4 channels, or 4 instances of Attacer?
Thanks!

Edit: I made my own Transient designer with synth edit. It was based on the same formula as the original, but it didn't sound as smooth

[ This Message was edited by: Stige on 2004-07-12 11:20 ]

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Jul 12, 2004 12:34 pm

the DSP load of TD is neglectible - a stereo instance is just one dot on the display (I have 8 DSPs).

Btw the german Keys mag added a nice 'trick' by Brian Eno as a sidenote to it's review of transient processing tools.

He uses 2 different signals on a stereo instance, for example a drumloop and a pad.
Since the channels are linked the envelope change is modulated on the pad.
It's said to give some great additional applications of the TD

cheers, Tom