can someone explain "transients"?

[j_nition]

What is a transient and what does it mean when a speaker or amp handles them well?

[craig.p]

A transient is sudden (fraction-of-a-second) change in volume. The piano is the King Of Transients. When a rig handles transients well, it means that in terms of volume, what you play is what you hear, with little or no compression. This isn't necessarily desirable, by the way. As always, "it depends."

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by craig.p

This isn't necessarily desirable, by the way.

+1. One difference between tubes and SS is that tubes naturally compress the signal, taming transients that can cause SS to nastily clip unless an outboard compressor is used.

[craig.p]

This page shows the waveform of a struck piano key. Note the almost instantaneous rise from silence. That's a transient. Back in the days of vinyl, the acid test of a cartridge's tracking ability was to use it to play a recording of loud piano music.

[SteveC]

I think in the bass world they are often what happens when you slap.

[greenboy]

Think of transients as the percussive leading-edge attack portions in any amplitude envelope. Say what? ; }

[j_nition]

would transients also include edgey attack when playing with a pick?

[JimmyM]

indeed they would.

[Gort]

In the general case, a transient is any short term change in the signal.

In the context of amplification it usually means a sudden but short term increase in the amplitude of the signal being amplified.

[Pedulla-Player]

Isn't a transient a term for a homeless person that wanders from town to town?? Sorry I had to do it - very tasteless on my part.

[KJung]

+1 to most of the above. Hard digging in, slapping, digging in with a pick can put some massive input into your signal chain for very short periods of time.

Many players enjoy a wide dynamic range with little compression. For those players, having a solid state amp and a cabinet that can handle these peaks is key. That typically means more power than you would think you would need (to keep the amp from hitting its safety limiting circuitry), and a cabinet with either multiple drivers or drivers that have very good specs (the xmax thing the EE's talk about). Not having 'enough power' ('enough' is defined by your speaker SPL and number of drivers, and your absolute volume needs), or cheap drivers can result in these transients being compressed (like a compressor turned to too high of a level).

As pointed out above, a tube preamp or tube power amp provides some natural compression, which again can be a good (or in my case) a very bad thing. Also, a compressor pedal can help control this sort of 'compression' if you either like that effect or have a rig that can't handle the transients (i.e., it will still compress the transients, but in a more controlled way). I never use compression on my rig at all, others do.

This is also one reason you hear guys slapping in music stores when trying out rigs. Thumping on the E string is a great way to assess the ability of the amp and cab to stay full and clear and not compressed when you are really digging in. It is very easy to hear.... play the open E string fingerstyle as you normally would with the rig turned up to moderate/high volume. Now thump the E string with your thumb. If you hear a noticable reduction in low end fundamental or volume (assuming the input gain is set correctly), then you are experiencing what I would call 'unwanted compression from transients', which is either due to the power amp running out of headroom, or the drivers exceeding their mechanical limits.

Whew! Lots of words... sorry. However, this is just so KEY when choosing a rig, especially if you are trying to find a smaller cab that will work for you

[craig.p]

Way OT: Power transient from Hell.

Apparently this transient was only something like a couple hundredths of a second in duration. That's a TINY fraction of an AC waveform. And yet look at the effects. Totally preventable.

Anyway, just wanted to provide another example of a "transient."