How could I automate this process in DP?

[FMiguelez]

Hello.

I have this kick drum that is heavily saturated. I'm digging its sound, but the transients are getting lost.

I was thinking I could automate some kind of envelope that would automate the saturation to start right after the transient, some 20-30 ms after. Automating this manually would be boring (I thought of this once the full song's drum parts have been programmed, and I don't even know if it will work).

Any ideas how I could do it in DP?
Is there any "boutique" plugin you know of that could be used for this?
Perhaps even MachFive? I'm not sure how I'd set it up, and its saturation is not that nice, IIRC.

I know I could mult the track and process the clones differently, etc., or even add a transient shaper, but I like automating things when possible.

Please feel free to point out other approaches or techniques, but please try to address my main question above, even if you tell me it's a naive way...

Thank you!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

This might be helpful...

DYNAMIC EQUALIZER

[Kurt Cowling]

Free transient shaper from Flux called Bitter Sweet.

[mikehalloran]

Free transient shaper from Flux called Bitter Sweet.

Bitter Sweet is free. Here's the download page:
https://www.fluxhome.com/download

Bitter Sweet Pro v.3 is out and on sale for $99—there's a demo you can download from the above link. You don't need the dongle if you have iLok:
https://www.fluxhome.com/store/cart/2/map

[stubbsonic]

You could also try just using a nice compressor, but setting the attack to be slow. This means that the attack will engage the compressor, but it will take some time to kick the level down, allowing the attack transient to go through. By adjusting the attack speed, ratio and threshold (and release speed), you might get what you need.

What is nice with the Dynamic EQ (as MLC suggested) is that you can perform this function on different frequency bands and really fine tune the tone as well as the attack. It even has per-band look-ahead, which gives you another aspect of control over the envelope shape.

[bayswater]

I was going to suggest like Stubbs that it may be as simple as adjusting the attack. If that doesn't work, you could split it into two channels, put a gate on one that shuts down after the initial attack, and one with the saturation effect, and then mix them back together.

[Shooshie]

I was going to suggest like Stubbs that it may be as simple as adjusting the attack. If that doesn't work, you could split it into two channels, put a gate on one that shuts down after the initial attack, and one with the saturation effect, and then mix them back together.

I was going to say adjust the attack, but your gate method sounds promising, too. I'd probably start with the attack, just for simplicity's sake. That's fast and easy.

Shooshie

[FMiguelez]

Guys, thank you very much for your informed answers.

I will be trying them all out for the next couple of hours.

I must say you are sending me to a different direction than what I had in mind (I wanted the transient portion clean, without saturation, and the saturation to "fade in" immediately afterwards), but I'm certain I will learn something trying your suggestions, and perhaps even get a better sound.
Besides, I LOVE mixing tricks. The more I try, the better

Ok. Time to roll my sleeves up.

Gracias!

I'm still curious about my original query, though...

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I believe this is exactly the kind of thing the Dynamic EQ is intended for.

[FMiguelez]

I believe this is exactly the kind of thing the Dynamic EQ is intended for.

From my short experience with that plugin, it definitely allowed me to sharpen the attack, and even control the sound of my selected frequency areas. It's totally awesome. I actually managed to "recreate" a good deal of the transient in the upper mids.

But it does NOT, AFAIK, give me a clean, unsaturated attack, because the signal is already with the saturation in it, so there's no way to get rid of the saturation sound for only the first 30 ms of the transient and have the sound of saturation kick in right afterwards.
Yes, I can almost reshape the sound to get a transient with the attack, but it's not clean/unsaturated.

Or perhaps my original query is kind of stupid?
I read something about it somewhere, and I just wanted to try it to see what it sounds like. Maybe it will sound the same, after all? It wouldn't be the first time I waste hours of tweaking just to arrive at my original result or finding out an idea didn't work for a particular song,

I guess I'll spend a few minutes doing a few bars manually, fading manually the saturated kick into an unsaturated clone and see what happens (if anything).

Believe it or not, I'm getting into Hip-Hop & Trap. ME!!! Fernando!!
And in a couple of months, I'll try something else... perhaps Dubstep or Deep House, or something like that that I have NO IDEA about.

I guess I've been developing an appreciation for music that requieres lots of synth tweaking and studio trickery. It's really fascinating.
Besides, it's been so much fun to incorporate those styles with my regular orchestral writing for the incidental music of the shows I'm doing (one of them shot in Miami, so this will work nicely).
I'm not after "authentic" sounding Hip Hop, but rather, my own interpretation of its main elements. At first I kept making sonic messes, but I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it, little by little (maybe not yet).

Anyway, all your suggestions gave me different ways to skin the cat, and they all lend different results, and it was fun playing with all that

[FMiguelez]

I was going to suggest like Stubbs that it may be as simple as adjusting the attack. If that doesn't work, you could split it into two channels, put a gate on one that shuts down after the initial attack, and one with the saturation effect, and then mix them back together.

This one is working nicely!
Thanks, Bays

[bayswater]

I was going to suggest like Stubbs that it may be as simple as adjusting the attack. If that doesn't work, you could split it into two channels, put a gate on one that shuts down after the initial attack, and one with the saturation effect, and then mix them back together.

This one is working nicely!
Thanks, Bays

Good news! I think I'll make a channel strip preset for this.

I expect Dynamic EQ would work if the frequency content of the attack and the rest were quite distinct from each other.

[daniel.sneed]

And blending that kick with any kick sample Vi, thru triggering from your original track?