Kaux

By the way, does the forum still have polls?

Thanks guys... for those of you using more than 44.1... is there any particular reason?

and why?

I guess it has been trated to death here, but i am just taking stats to write in my blog....i dont want to discuss what is better, just to know what people is using.

Thanks...

I am right thinking it all depends of the portion you look at right?

Because in the horn player example, if i look at just the soft attack section, just before the swell, then for that section the peak is the same as the transient right?

Maybe this is too picky but...

Lets consider a snare hit...

the transient would be the portion from silence to just before the peak?

the portion from silence to the peak and back to silence?

Just that highest point?

So what do you guys whink about this definitions:

Transient

A non-repeating waveform, usually of much higher level than the surrounding sounds or average level. Good examples of transients include the attack of many percussion instruments, the "pluck" or attack part of a guitar note, consonants in human speech (i.e. "T"), and so on. Due to their higher-than-average level and fleeting nature, transients are difficult to record and reproduce, eating up precious headroom, and often resulting in overload distortion. Careful use of compression can help tame transients and raise average level, although over-compression will result in a dull, squashed, flat sound to the signal.

Peak

Generally the highest point. In audio this refers in various ways to the maximum audio signal. A sine wave has two peaks per cycle, which represent the maximum or peak amplitude or voltage (one is maximum in the positive direction while the other is maximum in the negative). Complex musical signals have peaks, which represent the loudest sections or moments. Transients in musical material are also referred to as peaks, though they are really a specific type of peak that has a very short duration of time. On a waveform display such as an oscilloscope audio peaks often look like the peaks of a mountain.

Peaking is a word that is sometimes used to describe audio that has gone beyond some specified reference. For example, when the peak LED illuminates on a mixer or recorder the signal can be said to be peaking. This is closely associated with overloading, distortion, and clipping.

Those are taken from sweetwater's glossary

Would the transient be better defined as a sudden raise in level?

By the way, why are you interested in this? Did I just solve a homework problem for you?

No, its because i am writting in my audio blog in spanish. You can see it in my signature. Thanks a lot for your answers too.

Thanks! It totally clarified it to me...

So if you were to differentiate one form the other how would you do it?

I know they are used the same, but is there any difference between what a peak is and what a transient is?