Waves Smack Attack (Download)
Shape Your Drums’ Punch with the Ultimate Transient Shaper

Make drums leap out of a mix. Help the snare crack instead of thud. Get strummed acoustic guitar to sound crisper. Enable percussive rap vocals to hit hard. Or, go in the other direction—tame hand percussion to sit better in the mix, or pull back a bass’s attack to emphasize sustain.

Compared to traditional transient shapers, Smack Attack’s powerful processing provides more detailed control over the initial attack. From tracks to masters, your sound comes alive.

Restore Presence for Drums and Percussive instruments

The recording process can’t always capture transients faithfully, which dulls the sound. Smack Attack not only restores transients, but can emphasize them to produce hyper-realistic presence and energy.

Pick Your Punch

Add as much, or as little, punch as you want to any instrument with a percussive attack. Bring drums, bass, brass stabs, string attacks, even vocals closer to a mix’s forefront. Or, push the punch hard—and set sounds on stun.

Take the Edge Off, Too

Bright acoustic guitars sound great—but the pick noise can be overwhelming. Use Smack Attack to soften the pick transient, but keep the brightness. Or, take the edge off tambourines and other aggressive percussion.

From Surgical Fixes to Creative Effects

Apply different shapes to the attack, from tight spikes to blunt shapes with a slower rise. Raise sustain to bring up room sound on drums, or lower sustain to tighten up any sound (like a ringing tom) that overstays its welcome. Both Attack and Sustain come with Sensitivity and Duration controls to tailor the effect with precision.

Flexible and Versatile

Parallel processing lets you dial in the right blend of transient-shaped and original sound. And even when pushing punch to the max, you can enable clipping or limiting to guard against excessive output levels.

Zero Latency for Live Sound

Smack Attack’s real-time operation has no latency, so it rocks your sound in live shows as well. You can even add real-time expressiveness with MIDI controllers, like a keyboard’s mod wheel, or footpedal.

Requirements:

mac:
ram: 8
disk: 16
version: macOS Catalina 10.15, Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14
internet_required: False
plugins: VST-2,VST-3,AU,AAX

windows:
ram: 8
disk: 16
version: Windows 10 64 bit Windows 11
internet_required: False
plugins: VST-2,VST-3,AAX

Licensing:
methods: computer,usb