Drum shaper
IMPACT engine
Transient & Groove Punch Shaper
What it does
One kit, three jobs
A drum bus is three different problems wearing one fader. The sub needs weight and control, the body needs attack, and the top needs definition. Move one with a single compressor and you move all three.
IMPACT engine splits the signal at 90 Hz and 350 Hz and gives each band its own attack shaping, so you can pull the click forward without thinning the body, or sit the sub back without losing the snap on top.
Then it glues them back together: compression across the whole thing, saturation with a character you choose, and a ceiling at −0.3 dB so the bus cannot embarrass you.
In detail
The parts worth knowing about
Three bands, shaped apart
Sub below 90 Hz, punch from 90 to 350 Hz, click above it. Punch and Click bring the attack forward or push it back inside one band and leave the other two where they were.
Watch the scope while you turn one: only its colour moves.
A sub that follows the kick
A tuned sub tone with its own weight and phase control. Lock it to a key, or let it track the pitch of the kick it is sitting under.
Phase is there because a sub that fights the kick is quieter than no sub at all, and the fix is a few degrees rather than a different sample.
Glue, drive and a ceiling
A glue compressor, then saturation with three characters and optional oversampling, then a limiter at −0.3 dB.
Everything below 120 Hz is kept mono, which is where a wide low end turns into a quiet one on a club system.
See every band
The scope draws sub, punch and click in their own colours with the duck overlaid as a line, and meters either side.
You can watch which band is doing the work rather than inferring it from a gain reduction needle.
Sub ducking
The low end steps aside each time the kick lands, so the kick and the bass stop fighting over the same few milliseconds. There is no sidechain routing to set up.
Where to put it
A drum bus is what it is built for, and it works on a single kick or on a loop you have bounced. It processes audio, so it goes in an Audio FX slot like any other effect.
Oversampling when you want it
Saturation can run oversampled for cleaner highs, or off when you would rather have the latency back. The panel tells you which, and what the latency currently is.
Getting it running
In your DAW
Logic Pro
On an audio track, a drum bus or an instrument track, click an empty Audio FX slot, then Audio Units → Takt Audio Labs → IMPACT engine. Choose Stereo, or Mono on a mono track.
The first time it opens, paste the licence key from your receipt.
Ableton Live
In Settings → Plug-Ins, turn on Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders and rescan. In the browser sidebar click Plug-Ins rather than Audio Effects, open Takt Audio Labs, and drag IMPACT engine onto an audio track or a drum bus.
If Audio Units are switched on in Live as well, it appears twice. They are the same plug-in and either one is fine.
Privacy and updates
Offline by default
No account, no cloud, no telemetry, no analytics. Nothing you make with IMPACT engine is sent anywhere, and it works with your network switched off.1
How you get updates
Updates are free within the current major version. When one is out, IMPACT engine says so in its settings menu and points you back to this page. The download link on your original receipt always serves the current build, so there is nothing to buy again and no key to enter again.
Your licence carries across untouched, and a session written with one version opens in the next with every setting where you left it.
| Formats | Audio Unit, VST® 3 |
|---|---|
| System | macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel |
| Windows | Planned, not promised |
| Licence | One purchase, up to three machines, moveable |
| Activation | One time, with the key from your receipt. No account, no ongoing checks |
| Updates | Free within the current major version |
| Support | support@taktaudiolabs.com |
How activation works. Your receipt includes a licence key. Paste it into IMPACT engine once and it activates. That is the only moment it needs an internet connection. After that it never contacts anything again, with or without a connection.
Until a key is entered, audio passes through untouched. Three machines per licence, and if you sell a Mac or a drive dies you can release the slot from inside the plug-in yourself.
- Two exceptions, both small. Activating your licence contacts our server once, at the moment you paste your key in. That is the only time anything about your purchase is transmitted. After that, IMPACT engine asks taktaudiolabs.com once a day whether a newer version exists. That is a request for a public file: it carries nothing about you or your machine, and if you are offline it simply doesn’t ask, and nothing about the plug-in changes. Nothing else ever leaves your computer, and you are welcome to confirm every word of this with any network monitor. Back to the text