> How does a drum’s transient work? For an acoustic drum, there are two obvious components: the stick or beater hitting the drum, and the drum’s initial movement created by it, before it moves to a state where it rings out as it loses energy. In drum synthesis, these characteristics are emulated by the stick or ‘click’ layer, and the fast pitch envelope of the electronic drum’s main tone.
So what’s a drum transient? In both cases, the transient is marked as a higher frequency sound coming before the body – whether the much higher impact sound, or higher pitch ringing of the drum’s membrane itself. To enhance a transient, we can bring up the level at the start of the sound, or do anything that enhances higher frequencies.