RD-02 Transient Shaper user manual

Overview

RD-02 Transient Shaper reshapes each hit in three regions: Strike (the initial attack), Body (the energy straight after it) and Tail (the later decay). Each detected hit opens a Strike, Body and Tail window of finite length. RD-02 boosts or cuts the gain in each region, then returns to unity gain until the next hit.

RD-02 is a per-hit region shaper. It is not a continuous attack/sustain processor. Every accepted hit restarts the window. Tail lifts or cuts a decay only within its reach and cannot hold sustain indefinitely. Legato or held material is shaped only after its first onset. Shaping fades out on quiet material below about −62 dBFS.

In summary, the signal flow is: Input trim, then detection (internal, or an external key, guided by Focus), then the Strike / Body / Tail gain envelope, then Drive (applied to the whole signal or to one region), then Mix with the latency-aligned dry signal (taken after Input trim), then Output, then the optional Safety Clip. Signal flow gives the full order.

RD-02 works in mono and stereo, with an optional mono or stereo external trigger. Both channels receive the same envelope gain, so the stereo image is preserved.

First session

1. Click the Presets icon and double-click Init in the Utility folder. It loads and the screen opens the SHAPE page.
2. Play percussive material through RD-02, such as a snare, a kick or a drum loop.
3. Turn Strike up to bring out the attack, then use Body and Tail to lift or cut the energy after it. SHAPE shows the result on each hit.
4. On the DETECT page, check that every hit is marked. If hits are missed or extra ones appear, adjust SENSITIVITY or choose a FOCUS band that isolates the instrument, and confirm the markers on the TRANSIENTS page.
5. Use Output to match the level while you switch the power button between processing and bypass, so you compare at matched loudness.

Controls reference describes every control in detail.

System requirements

Installation

One Revesby Dynamics installer per platform installs RD-01 Studio Compressor and RD-02 Transient Shaper. You can choose either plugin or both. The same installer is used for the demo and the full version. A licence file unlocks the full version, and you can add it at any time.

Installing, updating or uninstalling never changes your licence files or your user presets.

Save your work and close your audio applications before you run the installer.

Windows

1. Run the Revesby Dynamics installer and follow the steps. It asks for administrator permission.
2. On the components page, select RD-02 Transient Shaper. Any plugin you leave unchecked stays as it is.
3. When setup finishes, open your host and rescan VST3 plugins if RD-02 does not appear. It is listed under Revesby Audio.

If RD-02 is loaded in an audio application, setup stops before it changes anything. Close the application and run setup again.

macOS

1. Open the Revesby Dynamics disk image and run Install Revesby Dynamics.
2. On the Installation Type step, choose the plugins you want.
3. When installation finishes, open your host. Logic Pro and GarageBand find the Audio Unit straight away. In other hosts, rescan plugins if RD-02 does not appear.

The installer refreshes the Audio Unit cache.

Rescanning plugins

Most hosts scan for new plugins when they start. If RD-02 does not appear, use your host's plugin manager to rescan, or restart the host. In VST3 hosts, also confirm that the host scans the standard VST3 folder listed above.

Uninstalling

Windows: run Uninstall Revesby Dynamics from Installed apps, or from C:\Program Files\Revesby Audio\Revesby Dynamics. It removes the plugins that the installer added, the documents and the uninstaller. If a plugin is open in an audio application, the uninstaller cannot remove it and asks you to close the application and run the uninstaller again.

macOS: no uninstaller is provided. To remove RD-02, quit your audio applications and delete these two bundles:

• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/RD-02 Transient Shaper.vst3
• /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/RD-02 Transient Shaper.component

On both platforms, uninstalling leaves your licence file, user presets and settings in place, so a later reinstall finds them. To remove them as well, delete them from these folders:

The licence folders are shared with RD-01. Keep a copy of your licence file before you delete it.

Demo mode and activation

Demo mode

Without a licence, RD-02 runs as a demo:

• There is no time limit, and every control and feature works.
• For 2 seconds in every 45 seconds of processed audio, the output drops to silence, with short fades at each edge. The count follows processed audio rather than the clock, so offline bounces and exports include the dropouts too.
• While the plugin is bypassed, there are no dropouts.
• A DEMO badge appears at the top of the screen on every page. Click it to open the About page.

Licensing changes no settings. Sessions and presets you make in demo mode reopen exactly as they were.

Buying and importing a licence

The About page shows the licence status. In demo mode it reads DEMO / output drops out every 45 s and offers two actions:

• BUY opens the RD-02 page on revesbyaudio.com in your browser.
• IMPORT opens a file dialog. Choose the .license file from your order email.

You can also drag the licence file onto any part of the plugin panel. Files ending .license or .licence are accepted.

RD-02 checks the file before it saves anything. A valid file is copied to your licence folder, and the About page reads Thank you! The licence is saved for every DAW on this computer. IMPORT remains available after licensing, so you can replace a licence later, for example with a bundle licence.

Once licensed, the About page shows Licensed to followed by your name (or your email address, if the file carries no name), and a detail line. The detail line reads Dynamics Bundle for a bundle licence, Not for resale for an NFR licence, Valid until with a date for a time-limited licence, and otherwise Thank you for your support.

One licence for every instance and host

• Importing a licence in one instance unlocks every open instance of the products it covers. Other host applications on the same computer find it in the licence folder: an open plugin window rescans the folder every 1.5 seconds.
• A Dynamics Bundle licence is one file that covers both RD-01 Studio Compressor and RD-02 Transient Shaper. Import it once, in either plugin, and both are unlocked.
• There is no machine binding and no activation server. To use RD-02 on another of your computers, install it there and import the same file.

Licence folders

Every host and plugin format reads both folders.

Refund check

Once licensed, RD-02 asks revesbyaudio.com about once a day whether the order for your licence has been refunded or charged back. The request sends only the licence ID (and, like any web request, your computer's IP address). The first check starts about 20 seconds after the plugin loads, so a host's quick plugin scan doesn't normally trigger it.

If the computer is offline, or the request fails or times out, nothing changes. If the order was refunded or disputed, the licence stops working and RD-02 returns to demo mode. If the dispute is withdrawn or decided in Revesby Audio's favour, the licence works again. If no Revesby Dynamics licence is installed on the computer, and none has been revoked there, no request is made.

Licence terms in brief

Your licence is personal and non-transferable. You may install and use RD-02 on up to three computers that you own or use, provided you are the only person using it, and you may use it in any personal or commercial work. Keep your licence file private and keep a copy somewhere safe. The full terms are in the Revesby Dynamics End User Licence Agreement, which is included with the installer and published at revesbyaudio.com/eula.

Interface overview

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The panel is a stainless rack faceplate with a central screen. At 100 % it measures 1160 × 329 logical pixels.

Working with the knobs

To enter a value, type a number with or without its unit (for example -3, -3 dB or 120 ms). A comma decimal separator and the typographic minus sign are accepted. If the entry is not a number, the value stays as it was and the readout shows INVALID ENTRY for a moment. Values outside a control's range are limited to the range.

The Input trim fader works in the same way: drag, Shift-drag for fine adjustment, double-click to reset to 0 dB, and right-click for value entry.

The FOCUS and DRIVE TARGET selectors are rotary switches with four positions. Drag or use the mouse wheel to turn them, click the knob to step to the next position (wrapping from the last position to the first), or click an engraved legend to select that position directly. Double-click returns a selector to its first position (FULL or ALL).

The TRIGGER and DELTA switches are thumb switches. Click to change the position.

The screen

The screen has four live pages: TRANSIENTS, SHAPE, DETECT and COLOUR. It also has three utility pages: the preset browser, the save form and About.

• Navigation: use the arrows at either side of the screen, or click the four page marks at the top. The arrows cycle the four live pages. From a utility page, they return to the last live page.
• Page following: when you adjust a control, the screen switches to the page that shows it best. Strike, Body, Tail and the three length controls go to SHAPE. Focus, Contour and Trigger go to DETECT. Drive and Drive Target go to COLOUR. Amount, Input, Mix, Output and Delta go to TRANSIENTS. Host automation, Undo and Redo do not trigger automatic page following, and neither does switching A/B.
• Presets and pages: in the preset browser, a single click on a preset loads it and keeps the browser open, for auditioning; a double-click loads it and opens the SHAPE page, even when the screen is locked. Opening a preset file also opens the SHAPE page. The previous and next arrows in the browser's title row load the adjacent preset and keep the browser open.
• Screen lock: the padlock at the top right of the screen keeps the current page. You can still change pages manually while it is locked.
• Title row: every live page shows the trigger source (INT, EXT or EXT NOT ROUTED) and the Focus band, for example INT / FULL. While Delta is on, the row begins with DELTA.
• Readout: the bottom left of the screen shows the selected control's name and value, and briefly confirms actions such as preset loads and A/B changes.

The page, the lock state and the window size are saved with the session, and recalling a session restores them. The plots redraw only while there is sound to show.

TRANSIENTS

This is the home page. It shows one bar of the host's timeline, with a write cursor sweeping across it. The original waveform appears faintly behind the shaped output, each detected hit is marked, and the applied gain appears in a lane beneath, with boosts above the centre line and cuts below. The gain lane spans +12 dB to −24 dB. When the host is not playing, the bar runs freely at the host tempo (120 bpm in 4/4 if the host gives no tempo).

SHAPE

This page overlays up to six recent hits, aligned to their onsets, over shaded Strike, Body and Tail regions. The time axis is square-root scaled, so the first milliseconds (Strike) get more room. The upper trace shows the output envelope, with the newest hit's dry envelope faintly behind it. The lower trace shows the applied gain, and a dashed line shows the target gain that the current settings ask for. When you select a preset from the browser, the screen shows this page (see The screen).

DETECT

This page shows what the detector hears: the key signal after Focus filtering across one bar, with a marker on every hit it detected. It also shows a TRIG lamp that lights on each hit, the selected Focus band on a 20 Hz to 20 kHz scale (with the 250 Hz and 2.5 kHz band edges), the Contour value and the number of hits per bar. The SENSITIVITY setting is on this page's bottom row (see Screen settings). If EXT is selected but no key is routed, the page reads EXT NOT ROUTED: SEND A KEY TO THE SIDECHAIN INPUT.

COLOUR

This page shows the newest hit's envelope, with shading where the Drive gate is open for the selected Drive Target. It also shows the Drive amount, the target (ON: ALL, ON: STRIKE and so on) and the Drive transfer curve at the current amount. The SAFETY CLIP and DRIVE COMP toggles are at the top right of this page.

Meters

The IN meter shows the sample-peak level after Input trim. The OUT meter shows the sample-peak level of the plugin's output. Both are stereo, and a mono signal shows on both lanes. The scale is marked at 0, −3, −6, −12, −24 and −60 dBFS. Segments turn amber from −6 dBFS and red from −1 dBFS. A red OUT lens indicates a captured peak at or above 0 dBFS. While Delta is on, OUT shows the Delta audition signal. While the plugin is bypassed, IN shows the raw input.

Utility icons

The icons along the bottom of the screen are, from left to right:

A/B, presets and undo affect the sound settings only. Bypass, Delta and Safety Clip stay as they are when you load a preset or switch A/B slots.

Presets

The preset browser lists the factory presets under FACTORY and your own presets under USER, by folder. Folders are on the left and presets on the right. A single click on a preset loads it and keeps the browser open, so you can audition presets in turn; a double-click loads it and returns to the SHAPE page. The browser's title row shows the current preset's name, followed by * once you have changed it, with previous and next arrows that load the adjacent preset and keep the browser open. Open file... at the end of the folder list loads a .rd02preset file from anywhere on your computer.

Saving: click Save. If the current preset is one of your own presets, choose Save over to replace it, or Save As... to open the save form. Otherwise the save form opens straight away. Enter a name, choose a folder (the top level of your user presets, a folder named after a factory folder, an existing folder of yours, or New folder...), then click SAVE or press Return. If a preset with that name already exists in that folder, the button reads REPLACE and asks for a second click to confirm. CANCEL or Escape closes the form.

User presets are .rd02preset files in your preset folder. Subfolders appear as categories.

Presets store the sound: every control except Bypass, Delta and Safety Clip. When RD-02 loads a preset, it checks the whole file first and changes nothing if the file is invalid. If any value in the file is outside its range, it is limited to the range and the readout adds (LIMITED).

In the AU version, the factory presets also appear in the host's own preset menu (for example, in Logic Pro).

About page

The About page shows the product name, the line Revesby Dynamics / Version 1.0.0 and the LICENCE block, with a status line and a detail line (see Buying and importing a licence).

• WINDOW SIZE, at the top right, chooses the interface size (see Window size).
• MANUAL, at the bottom left, opens this manual on revesbyaudio.com.
• NOTICES opens the third-party licence notices at revesbyaudio.com/notices.
• SUPPORT opens revesbyaudio.com/support. You can also email support@revesbyaudio.com.
• BUY (demo only) and IMPORT are at the bottom right.

Window size

Choose 75 %, 100 %, 125 %, 150 % or 200 % with WINDOW SIZE at the top right of the About page, or right-click any empty part of the panel. The size is saved with the session, and new instances open at the size you chose last on that computer.

Bypass

The power button at the top right switches processing on and off. The host's bypass control works the same way. Bypass crossfades to the latency-aligned, untrimmed input over 20 ms, so it does not click, and the reported latency does not change. Internal processing keeps running while bypassed, so re-engaging is smooth.

Host automation

RD-02 exposes 20 host parameters: Strike, Body, Tail, Amount, Contour, Drive, Strike length, Body length, Tail reach, Input, Mix, Output, Bypass, Focus, Drive Target, External Trigger, Delta, Safety Clip, Sensitivity and Drive Comp. Automation lanes show the same value text as the panel and accept the same typed formats. All settings save with the host session.

Controls reference

Defaults are the values a new instance starts with, and the values Init restores.

Shaping

Timing

On each timing knob, the default value is at the knob's centre. At the default lengths, the full window lasts 410 ms from the onset. At the maximum lengths, it lasts 1.53 s.

Detection

Colour

Level and monitoring

Screen settings

Three settings have no panel control:

• SENSITIVITY is on the bottom row of the DETECT page. Drag it up or down to change it, Shift-drag for fine adjustment, or double-click to reset it to 50 %.
• SAFETY CLIP and DRIVE COMP are toggles at the top right of the COLOUR page. Click to switch them on or off. The readout confirms the new state.

Sessions and presets saved before these settings existed

Sensitivity, Safety Clip and Drive Comp were added to RD-02 after its first sessions and presets were made. A session or preset that does not contain them restores the behaviour it was made with:

Older sessions therefore sound as they did when they were saved. To use the current detector and Drive level compensation in an older session, set Sensitivity and Drive Comp by hand, or load Init or a factory preset.

Signal flow

This is the processing order inside RD-02.

1. Input. The main input (mono or stereo) is delayed by the 4 ms lookahead. A latency-aligned copy of the untrimmed input is kept for bypass.
2. Input trim. Sets the level into the unit. Both the processed signal and the dry signal used by Mix come after it, so Mix at 0 % still includes Input trim. It does not apply to an external key.
3. Detection. The detector listens to the trimmed main input (INT) or to the external key (EXT). Focus filters only the detector's copy, and the louder channel at any moment drives detection, so a stereo or opposite-polarity signal cannot cancel it. The detector runs ahead of the delayed audio, so it knows about each hit before the hit reaches the gain stage.
4. Region envelope. Each detected hit starts the Strike, Body and Tail regions. The gain rises smoothly into the hit over the 3.5 ms before its onset. The target gain is Amount multiplied by the weighted Strike, Body and Tail gains. One envelope gain is applied to both channels.
5. Quiet-signal fade. Shaping fades out as the trimmed main programme falls from −62 dBFS to −80 dBFS.
6. Drive. A 4× oversampled saturation stage, applied per channel. Drive Target gates the saturation, so the whole signal or only one region is affected. Drive Comp, when on, restores level where the gate is open.
7. Mix. Blends the latency-aligned dry signal, taken after Input trim, with the shaped, driven signal.
8. Output. Final gain.
9. Safety Clip (optional). Soft clip after Output.
10. Delta (optional). Replaces the result with the processed signal minus the trimmed dry signal.
11. Bypass. Crossfades the whole result back to the latency-aligned, untrimmed input.

All parameter changes, the Focus and Drive Target selections and Delta are smoothed over 20 ms. Safety Clip fades in and out over 5 ms. At neutral settings (Init, with the trims at 0 dB and Drive at 0 %), the output is the dry signal delayed by the reported latency, with no other change.

RD-02 processes internally at double precision. Non-finite input samples are treated as silence. RD-02 does not limit the output unless Safety Clip is on, so positive shaping may require you to lower Output.

How detection and the regions work

One window per hit

When RD-02 detects a hit, it opens three consecutive regions:

• Strike runs from the onset to Strike length.
• Body runs for Body length after Strike.
• Tail runs for Tail reach after Body. It holds its gain, then fades back to unity over the last part of its reach.

After Tail reach, the gain returns to 0 dB until the next hit. Strike, Body and Tail set the gain within each region, and Amount scales all three together.

Every accepted hit restarts the window from Strike. With fast material, a later region may barely act. At the default lengths, for example, Tail begins 110 ms after an onset, so 16th notes at 120 bpm (125 ms apart) leave Tail very little time before the next hit restarts the window. On a bus, a hi-hat hit also restarts the window on a ringing snare. To give Tail room on dense material, shorten Strike length and Body length, or use a Focus band that ignores the busier instrument.

Tail changes the audio that is already present. It does not generate a reverb or decay of its own. It can lift or cut a decay within its reach, but it cannot hold sustain indefinitely. Legato and held notes receive shaping only after their first onset.

Transitions between regions

Each hand-over between regions is a smooth fade, centred on the boundary, rather than a step. Its length depends on Contour: 4 ms at Contour −100 %, 12 ms at the default 0 % and 20 ms at +100 %. It is never longer than 1.5 times Strike length and never shorter than 4 ms. This keeps even a 24 dB change from clicking inside a single cycle of a low note.

What counts as a hit

RD-02 compares a fast envelope of the detector signal with a slower reference envelope. A hit needs:

• a sharp rise in the fast envelope;
• a level above the recent level (the slow reference), by a margin that Contour and Sensitivity set;
• a short minimum gap since the previous hit, so that one leading edge cannot trigger twice. This gap is 12 ms at Contour −100 % and 30 ms at +100 %.

Detection is relative, so Input trim has little effect on which hits are detected. Input trim does change the level that the quiet-signal fade sees.

Contour

Contour sets the character of the transitions and the selectivity of the detector together. To the left (negative), transitions are tighter and detection responds to smaller rises. To the right (positive), transitions are smoother, detection is more selective, and the minimum gap between hits is longer.

On sub-bass below about 40 Hz, use Contour at 0 % or to the right. With Contour fully left, a very low tone can re-trigger detection on its own cycles.

Sensitivity

Sensitivity sets how much quieter than the recent level a hit can be and still be detected. At 0 %, a hit must rise clearly above the level left by the previous hit. A quiet ghost note shortly after a loud hit can then be missed and simply inherits the previous hit's Body or Tail gain. At the default 50 %, a hit 12 dB below one 50 ms earlier, or 18 dB below one 120 ms earlier, is detected. At 100 %, the comparison with the recent level is removed, and only the sharp-rise test, a minimum level and the minimum gap remain.

Sensitivity does not make steady bass notes, noise beds or hi-hat washes re-trigger: the sharp-rise test is what holds those off.

Focus

Focus filters the detector's signal, not the audio. Use it to make RD-02 respond to one instrument in a mix:

The filters are 12 dB/octave Butterworth slopes. Changing Focus crossfades over 20 ms. Focus applies to the external key as well as to the internal signal. The DETECT page shows the key after Focus filtering, so you can see what the detector responds to.

Quiet signals

RD-02 fades its shaping out on quiet material. Shaping is at full strength while the trimmed main programme is above about −62 dBFS, then fades to nothing by −80 dBFS. This keeps low-level noise from being shaped. It also means that Tail boosts on quiet room decays, or on quiet externally triggered material, are weaker than the knob suggests. If you need more shaping on quiet material, raise Input trim and lower Output to compensate.

Drive, Drive Target and Drive Comp

Drive

Drive is a 4× oversampled saturation stage that follows envelope shaping. It is independent of Amount, so you can set the shaping and the saturation separately. Drive at 0 % is clean. The COLOUR page shows the transfer curve at the current amount.

Drive leaves quiet signals at almost the same level, but reduces the level of loud material at high settings. Without compensation, a −6 dBFS sine loses 4.9 dB at Drive 100 %. Drive Comp, described below, reduces this level change.

Drive Target

Drive Target selects where saturation is added:

With STRIKE, BODY or TAIL selected, the clean signal stays present throughout. Drive Target gates only the added saturation, and the gate follows the same smooth region transitions as the gain. These are time regions within each hit, not frequency bands or separated stems. Changing Drive Target crossfades over 20 ms. The COLOUR page shades the part of the newest hit where the Drive gate is open.

Drive Comp

Drive Comp reduces the level change caused by Drive, helping you compare settings at roughly equal loudness. Compensation follows the selected region: it applies a fixed level make-up after Drive only where Drive Target applies saturation. Use Output for final level matching.

The make-up is matched for material peaking around −6 dBFS: +3.1 dB at Drive 100 % and +0.33 dB at 50 %. Louder material still comes down slightly, and Drive Comp adds a subtle boost to quieter material. At Drive 0 %, Drive Comp has no effect. Drive Comp is on for new instances. Sessions and presets saved before it existed restore it off (see Controls reference).

Safety Clip

Safety Clip is an optional soft clip after Output. Below −1 dBFS it is exactly transparent. Above −1 dBFS it rounds peaks off so that the output stays at or below 0 dBFS, even with Strike at +12 dB. It has no latency, it fades in and out over 5 ms, it is included in the Delta signal and it is bypassed with everything else. Safety Clip is off by default, and presets and A/B leave it as it is.

Safety Clip works on sample peaks. It is not a true-peak limiter and it is not oversampled. For delivery masters, follow RD-02 with a dedicated true-peak limiter.

Delta

With DELTA set to ON, you hear the processed signal minus the latency-aligned dry signal after Input trim. Delta includes the effect of Mix, Output and Safety Clip, so you hear exactly what RD-02 adds or removes; Input trim on its own does not appear in Delta. At neutral settings, Delta is silent. The OUT meter shows the Delta signal, and the title row shows DELTA. Delta changes crossfade over 20 ms. Bypass overrides Delta and returns the untrimmed input.

External trigger

With TRIGGER set to EXT, RD-02 detects hits in a separate signal routed to its External Trigger input (a sidechain input in most hosts), and shapes the main audio from those hits. For example, a kick can open the regions on a bass, or a close snare microphone can time the shaping on a room microphone.

Setting it up

1. Insert RD-02 on the track you want to shape.
2. In your host, route the trigger source to RD-02's sidechain or External Trigger input. The method depends on the host. Usually you select the source in a sidechain menu in the plugin's header or on the source track's sends. Mono and stereo keys are both accepted.
3. Set RD-02's TRIGGER switch to EXT.
4. Check the DETECT page. It should show the key signal and mark each hit. The title row reads EXT when a key input is available, and EXT NOT ROUTED when it is not.
5. Use Focus, Contour and Sensitivity to refine detection on the key.

Behaviour

• With EXT selected, RD-02 never falls back to internal detection. If the key is missing, unrouted or silent, no hits are detected.
• The key is used only for detection and is never mixed into the output.
• Input trim does not apply to the key.
• A short key hit can start a full Strike, Body and Tail sequence on the main audio.
• The quiet-signal fade follows the main audio, not the key, so a key cannot open shaping on main audio that is near silence.
• Switching between INT and EXT restarts the detector. A hit that is already sounding finishes through its regions without a step.

Factory presets

RD-02 includes 28 factory presets in nine folders. They are starting points: audition each one on your material and adjust Strike, Body, Tail, the lengths and Output to suit. All factory presets use Sensitivity 50 % and Drive Comp on.

Utility

Notes on the other folders

• The Kick, Bass and Tom Attack presets use Focus LOW. The Snare presets use MID. Overheads Soften and Percussion Snap use HIGH.
• Mix Transient Lift (Mix 50 %) and Parallel Smack (Mix 40 %) are parallel settings.
• The External Trigger presets set TRIGGER to EXT. Route a key before you use them (see External trigger). Key Duck Tail cuts Body and Tail after each key hit. Key Shape lifts Strike and trims Tail.
• The Drive presets each target one region (or ALL). Their Output is lowered by 0.1 to 0.4 dB to offset Drive Comp's make-up.

Loading a preset leaves Bypass, Delta and Safety Clip as they are.

Tips

• Start from Init. Init passes latency-aligned dry audio. Adjust one region at a time: try Strike at +3 or +4 dB, then Body and Tail at ±3 to 6 dB separately, and use the length controls to place each region on your material.
• Compare at equal level. A Strike boost makes a track louder. Use Output to match levels before you judge, or use A/B with matched levels.
• Watch the markers. On the TRANSIENTS and DETECT pages, every clear hit should have a marker. If hits are missed, raise Sensitivity, move Contour to the left, or choose a Focus band that isolates the instrument. If you see unwanted extra hits, move Contour to the right, lower Sensitivity or narrow Focus.
• Use Focus on mixed sources. On a drum bus, LOW makes the kick time the shaping and HIGH makes the hats time it, while the whole bus is shaped.
• Shorten the room. A negative Tail on room or overhead microphones shortens the decay after each hit. Room Shorten and Snare Dry Room are starting points.
• Fit the window to the tempo. On fast parts, shorten Strike length and Body length so that Tail has room before the next hit restarts the window.
• Use Mix for parallel shaping. Mix blends with the latency-aligned dry signal, so the dry and processed signals stay in time at any setting.
• Add Drive last. Set the clean shaping first, then add Drive and compare the four targets. Drive Comp reduces the level change caused by Drive; use Output for final level matching.
• Check with Delta. Delta lets you hear only what RD-02 adds or removes, which is useful for setting region lengths precisely.
• Protect the output. With large Strike boosts, turn on Safety Clip, or lower Output.
• Low notes. For sub-bass below about 40 Hz, keep Contour at 0 % or to the right.

Troubleshooting

RD-02 does not appear in the host

• Rescan plugins, or restart the host.
• Check that the plugin is in the standard location (see Installation) and that your host is 64-bit.
• On Windows, RD-02 is VST3 only. Hosts that load only other formats will not find it.
• On macOS, Logic Pro and GarageBand use the Audio Unit. If it does not appear, use the host's plugin manager to rescan it. To check the Audio Unit outside the host, run auval -v aufx Rd02 Rvby in Terminal.

The installer stops on Windows

If setup reports RD-02 Transient Shaper is open in an audio application. Close your audio applications, then run setup again., nothing has been changed. Close every audio application and run setup again.

macOS blocks the installer or plugin

Download the disk image again from revesbyaudio.com and run the installer from it. If macOS still reports that it cannot verify the installer, contact support.

The audio drops out every 45 seconds

RD-02 is in demo mode. Look for the DEMO badge, open About and import your licence file. If you have already imported a licence and the dropouts return, check the message on the About page (see below).

Licence messages

These messages appear on the About page after an import:

If you lose your licence file, contact support and it will be resent.

No hits are detected with EXT selected

The title row reads EXT NOT ROUTED when no key input is available. Route a signal to RD-02's sidechain or External Trigger input in your host (see External trigger). If the key is routed but silent, no hits are detected, because RD-02 does not fall back to internal detection.

Hits are missed, or extra hits appear

Use the DETECT page to see what the detector hears. Raise Sensitivity to catch quieter hits that follow louder ones. Move Contour to the left for more responsive detection, or to the right for more selective detection. Choose a Focus band that isolates the instrument you want to follow.

Shaping seems weak on quiet material

Shaping fades out below about −62 dBFS. Raise Input trim and lower Output to compensate.

Shaping stops partway through a long note

This is expected. Each hit's window ends after Strike length, Body length and Tail reach (1.53 s at most), and gain then returns to unity until the next hit. RD-02 does not shape continuous sustain.

The output is louder or clips

Strike, Body and Tail boosts raise the level. Lower Output, or turn on Safety Clip on the COLOUR page to keep the output at or below 0 dBFS. A red OUT lens indicates a captured peak at or above 0 dBFS.

The level changes when I add Drive

Turn on Drive Comp on the COLOUR page. Sessions saved before Drive Comp existed restore it off.

An older session sounds different from a new instance

Sessions and presets saved before Sensitivity and Drive Comp existed restore Sensitivity at 0 % and Drive Comp off, so they sound as they did when they were saved. New instances use Sensitivity 50 % and Drive Comp on. See Sessions and presets saved before these settings existed.

Preset messages

RD-02 delays the audio

RD-02 uses a 4 ms lookahead plus 32 samples (224 samples at 48 kHz). The latency is reported to the host, which compensates for it automatically. If a track is out of time, check that your host's plugin delay compensation is on.

Support

Email support@revesbyaudio.com, or visit revesbyaudio.com/support (SUPPORT on the About page opens it). Include your operating system, your host and its version, the plugin format (VST3 or AU) and the version shown on the About page. If the issue is with detection, describe the material and the settings, or send a short example.

Credits and third-party notices

RD-02 is built with the JUCE framework (juce.com), used under licence from Raw Material Software. It includes these third-party components under their own licences:

The full notices and licence texts are:

• published at revesbyaudio.com/notices, which NOTICES on the About page opens;
• installed on Windows as Third-Party Notices.txt in C:\Program Files\Revesby Audio\Revesby Dynamics;
• on the macOS disk image, as Third-Party Notices.txt.

The Revesby Dynamics End User Licence Agreement covers RD-02 itself. It is installed alongside the notices as Licence Agreement.rtf and is published at revesbyaudio.com/eula.

Designed and made by Revesby Audio in Sydney, Australia.