Surreal Machines Releases Impact & Crack, Transient Shaping Plugins

TRANSIENT MACHINES are two transient shaping focused plugins in VST(2&3) & AU formats across 32 and 64 bit operation for Windows and macOS hosts, but go much further than typical transient designers.

We’re also proud to announce an online demo of IMPACT that can be tried in your browser to instantly get a feel without downloading anything (a VST demo will be released later). https://www.surrealmachines.com/impact-demo/ 

At the heart of our design process, the technical emulation of well known analog fx units is subjected to fine-tuning by ear in order to challenge the model with creative possibilities that transcend its original design. We tune and play, gradually adding features over time so that what we end up with is the culmination of features we as musicians want and need when making our own music.

Impact is a complete multi-band drum processing channel strip whereas its little sister Crack is a compact, easy to use transient shaper and dynamics tool (and FREE). Both plugins are designed primarily to work on drums but also excel on synths, guitars, vocals or even whole mixes or other groups.

Transient shaping is a process that allows you to quickly sculpt the sharpness of a sound and its dynamics. A transient is the short burst of energy at the beginning of a sound. With a transient shaper you can increase or decrease the beginning (attack) portion of the sound, making it more or less punchy; and you can increase or decrease the decay (sustain) portion of a sound, making the sound fade out slower or quicker (or even bloom in volume). With less sustain the sound will feel tighter and with more sustain the sound becomes fuller and even boomy.

Transient shaping is easier to use than a compressor for the same purpose and always works the same way no matter what the overall level of the signal is, as transient shaping is level independent with no need for a threshold. Think of the ?Attack and ?Sustain controls as “contrast dials” for your sound. You can quickly sharpen your sound, add more punch, make a sound more distant, take away reverb or rattle, make sounds gated in a very natural way, or even flatten your sound, smash your sounds up to make them fill the room or bend your sounds in unconventional and creative ways.

Of course both plugins come with carefully crafted presets. Both also feature comprehensive documentation, including plugin ‘walk-throughs’, ‘tips & tricks’ sections and detailed reference pages.

IMPACT PLUGIN, 49 EUROS

IMPACT is a new dynamic processor that gives you the ability to deeply reshape the transient signals in your productions using simple controls and an intuitive interface. With Impact, you have the ability to easily sharpen up the attack on your snares and claps, tighten the decay on boomy kick drums and toms, or just creatively sculpt the transient properties of your sound.

KEY FEATURES:

• 1, 2 or 3 bands of ?Transient Shaping,? each with A? ttack? and ?Sustain? controls.
• Up to 4 bands of routable? EQ ?using? ?zero-delay-feedback state variable filters.
• Four different characters of ?Saturation? to colour your sound including per-band.
• A ?Dynamics ?section with selectable ?Thru?, ?Clipping,? ?Limiting or special ?Maximizing dynamics processors.
• Comprehensive routing options? for using the effects in creative ways.
• Resizable UI
• Rewritten from scratch since the original Max For Live version to be fully optimized for both sound and performance in all modern DAWs, as well as reworked algorithms in key sonic areas.

CRACK PLUGIN, FREE

CRACK is a compact, easy to use transient shaper and dynamics tool based on a single band of its big sister Impact. It features transient shaping, output dynamics and a dry/wet blend. Crack is a workhorse of a plugin. It’s great on just one drum or for quickly adjusting a loop. You can load multiple instances across your tracks without worrying about performance as it is easy on your CPU. Crack can also be blended with the dry signal using the Dry/Wet knob, so you can dial in the amount of the effect for each track.

KEY FEATURES:

• A? Transient Shape?r with ?Attack? and ?Sustain? controls.
• A ?Dynamics section with selectable ?Thru?, ?Clipping,? ?Limiting or special ?Maximizing dynamics processors.
• A ?Dry/We?t mix control that adjusts blending of the effect.
• Resizable UI
• Rewritten from scratch since the original Max For Live version to be fully optimized for both sound and performance in all modern DAWs, as well as reworked algorithms in key sonic areas.