Smack Attack shapes the attack and sustain of percussive sounds – from adding punch to drums to softening harsh transients.

Compared with traditional transient shapers, Smack Attack offers more detailed control over the initial attack: shapes range from tight spikes to blunt curves with a slower rise, and both Attack and Sustain have Sensitivity and Duration controls. Make the snare crack instead of thud, bring up the room sound on drums, tighten a ringing tom or soften the pick noise of an acoustic guitar while keeping its brightness. Parallel processing, a limiter or clipper to guard against excessive output, MIDI control via mod wheel or foot pedal and zero-latency operation make it ready for live use too.

Features

• Detailed shaping of attack and sustain
• Selectable attack shapes from spiky to rounded
• Sensitivity and Duration controls
• Parallel processing plus output limiter or clipper
• Real-time graphic display for quick settings
• MIDI control and zero-latency operation

Technical details

• Operating systems: Windows, macOS
• Plug-in formats: VST3, Audio Unit (macOS only), AAX
• Architecture: 64 bit
• Licensing: licence key, machine-bound or USB flash drive (via Waves Central)

System requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma, 15 Sequoia, 26 Tahoe or 27 Golden Gate (Apple silicon or Intel)
• Windows 10 64-bit (version 22H2) or Windows 11 (Intel or AMD, x64)
• 16 GB RAM
• 30 GB free disk space on the system drive

The licence is registered with the manufacturer at https://www.waves.com/downloads/central. You will receive your serial number and the download link by e-mail immediately after purchase.