Attack Softener vs mLFO

Attack Softener is an effect that fades the beginning of each note you play to remove the attack transient. This allows you to make synth-like sounds with almost any instrument (guitar, bass, piano, etc.) HOW DOES IT WORK? It functions similarly to a transient shaper. Unlike a transient shaper though, it can bring the volume of attack sounds down to near zero quickly enough to silence the pick sound of an electric guitar in very fast music. WHAT IS IT USED FOR? It works with any instrument but we really like to use it with electric guitar. We recommend the following effect chain: Guitar -> Attack Softener -> Compressor -> Reverb. The combination of the attack softener and compressor is especially nice because the compressor keeps the volume balanced when playing clean solos but heavy compression intensifies the pick click noise, making it inappropriate for many styles of music. With the Attack Softener placed before the compressor you can get a nice, even clean solo tone that doesn't have punchy hard pick sounds. This allows you to play solos with a clean tone, where normally you would have to use distortion or overdrive to get sustain, now you can get that distorted "light touch" feel without the harshness of distortion. MORE TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF HOW IT WORKS A transient shaper creates two volume envelopes. One rises immediately and falls slowly; the other rises slowly and falls slowly. The difference between these two envelopes indicates how far the volume should be reduced to silence the attack. However, changing the volume very quickly usually causes noise in the sound because of volume changes that happen naturally during the sustain part of the notes. This plugin is different from ordinary transient shapers because it combines several new methods to help it differentiate between real attack transients and other volume changes, and it uses dynamic filters that adjust the response time to ensure that it can respond quickly without introducing audible clicking sounds when the volume changes. IS THERE ANY OTHER EFFECT LIKE THIS OR IS IT SOMETHING NEW? EHX makes a pedal called Attack / Decay that does something similar. There are several other pedals that also do swell effects. All of them are designed for long fades and slow playing except the EHX one, which can operate faster by separating each new note onto its own audio channel using spectral processing. That spectral note separation distorts the tone signficiantly. This Attack Softener plugin is the only effect we are aware of that handles fast picking while preserving the original tone of the instrument.

*** Note *** Although mLFO can run as a stand-alone app, the recommended way to use it is as an AUv3 plugin from inside a suitable AU Host app, such as AUM, AudioBus, Cubasis etc. mLFO AUv3 is a set of 16 programmable MIDI LFOs with a extensive set of features: - Multiple parameters per LFO, including variability. - Independent output and MIDI channel per LFO. - Wide rate range, from 1/128 to 130442 beats. - 9 factory and 16 user shapes. - Custom shapes: free and ADSR. - 4 trigger modes, including random retrigger (every incoming note triggers a random LFO). - MIDI Thru. mLFO uses parts of the following copyrighted material, the use of which is hereby acknowledged. LICENCES AudioKit The MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2016 Aurelius Prochazka Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.