Experimental Mixing Method with Surprising Results

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[jeffreyhanc]

I do this in Bitwig, which in its spectral suite has a module which separates transient from sustain material and then creates 2 corresponding processing chains - allowing you to use whatever processors you have to effect each separately. Super cool 👍

[grantwalkersound]

I've been professionally engineering and producing records for 25 years and this has to be in the top 3 best and most original techniques I have seen. Can't wait to try this.

[JonathanGalle]

As others have mentioned... Split EQ. There are several other options that do the same thing. Skillful compression work should also solve most of these issues without having to separate out the transient from tonal. That's why theres attack and release times. This is way too much work for only a very slight return imho, in my mind this is a potentially useful hack for certain use cases where you might need to save something, I would not suggest anyone use this for every project. I would also say if you've just started mixing and are watching this video, please ignore it. Your likely going to over-do it. It's concepts like this used by inexperienced mixers that end to projects getting to the mastering stage totally ruined. Remember less is more.

[pedrodyck]

Well, there is the split eq, which does exactly that. I use it a lot.

[Pintosonic]

Bitwig has a built in plugin called Transient Split that lets you not only rebalance the transient and tonal portions of a signal but each part can have its own effect chain where you can instantiate the plugin chain you want. Basically you can do exactly the same thing as what you did but don’t need RX to separate the transients, everything can be done within the DAW.

[mattstegner]

This is pretty smart.  
A similar was to separate in real time, instead of rendering, might be achieved by duplicating the track, and putting a transient shaper on each track at the beginning of the chain. One instance of the transient shaper could be set to only pass the transient, and the other would just pass the sustained signal. Then you don't need to render the audio to disk twice for each track, and you can make adjustments to the separation in real time.

This inspired me to think about using a similar transient splitting on some 4 track recordings that I have. The drums were a single mono track, and I'd like to try to figure out a way to create some stereo information without washing it in reverb or delay. I might try splitting out the transients, and then duplicating them and apply the hass effect on just the transients and see if it works at all (hopefully it won't turn into a phasey mess).

[TokyoSpeirs]

this is so weird and I love it. Split EQ doesn't let you use any plugin you want on the transient and sustained elements so I see how this could be useful in very unique situations

[christopherventer]

You can do this in analog as well. I have done it by setting a high ratio and slow attack with long release on a compressor to isolate the transients and also sending the same track through without any compression triggered. Then if you level match those two tracks and sum in reverse polarity with the original, you can also generate the sustain track. With that method you can be sure that the two separate elements do not contain each other. Kind of similar to mid side processing, conceptually, but for a single track.

[rootscape]

Thank you for the great video! However, sound professionals should always remember that using transient shaping with compression produces essentially the same result. Have you tried comparing your ‘new’ mixing approach with the standard one? Because compressors and transient shapers were actually created to control transients WITHOUT separating or any other destructive editing. 😅

[alphaoscillator]

couldve just routed the original track into two busses, used oeksounds spiff in delta mode for transient only and on the other the cut mode, then process individually

[EGLukrator]

you can also do the separation with ozone 11 eq (which is free)

[Kostaras]

Maybe SplitEQ from Eventide could come in handy for this type of processing as it splits transient and sustain inside the plugin itself.

[JR-uptz]

Very Nice Experiment!! Love it!
But Why not just use SplitEQ?

[tnbeats]

I've been trying to understand splitEq for a while, this video save me

[MOSMASTERING]

It's a lot of work for what sounds virtually identical to using a multiband transient shaper. Cubase has one built in and there are many 3rd party transient effects out there.. IMHO.

You could turn one to extreme sustain and release reduction, and the other attack gain. Separate them both, then mix them together again to your taste.

Incidentally, this method sounds much like what Oeksound's new plugin called Bloom is doing... its a multiband version of adjusting the body of each sound after the attack.

[IvoryShard]

That's one of the best mixing tips I've ever seen. That's so useful for so many styles.

[nikht]

You could use a compressor such as Kotelnikov in "delta" mode to isolate the transient

[theslideguy]

Excellent idea. Definitely more control than a transient shaper.

[afiefzaki]

If anyone wants to try this for free, the ozone 11 eq is free and it can separate transient/sustain

[ReNoMellow]

I do this all the time for drums using triggers and only use Sustain and release of the trigger and keep attack and decay from the original drums (gated). It allows more control of the pitch of the drums, the lenght of the drums and it keeps the play of the drummer more natural