Q About Transients

[Paul Marossy]

I downloaded the student version of CircuitMaker last night. I drew up a quick schematic and ran some analysis' on the circuit. I honestly don't quite know what a lot of this stuff is that I am looking at, yet.

Anyhow, it also shows transient response at points in the circuit, etc. So, I was thinking about transients a little bit, I don't quite understand the that concept yet. Whenever I hear transients spoken of, it's usually kind of in a negative light.

So here's my question: What's the big deal about transients and where does it matter most?

[sir_modulus]

as far as I knew, transients would be large spikes in the output power...well not exactly. An example I've heard is a guitar speaker. It's able to handle more transients than a Hi-Fi speaker, so it can go from little whisper soft string strokes, to sudden loud power chords, without the speaker self destructing. I've only heard of it in a positive light in the fact that some speakers have good transient handling abilities.

Cheers,

Nish

[R.G.]

In simulators, "transient response" is the response of the circuit to an initial stimulus. This may be but does not have to be a sudden spike or disturbance, which is what is commonly meant by "transient" in the workaday electronics world. This is as opposed to "steady state response", which is the circuit response to a steady, (e.g. sine wave or square wave) stimulus.

Think "time response to a single, not repeated stimulus", not "funny elusive disturbance."

[Halion]

Transients are short spikes in the volume. Most commonly, they are at the attack of the note. The very first few vibrations usually make up the transient. Image in the sharp attack, but lack of sustain on a stratocaster. That's a a type of sound with alot of transients.

Because they are usually at the beginning of a note, all electronical components must be able to handle a signal that quickly, or the transient will be (partially) lost because of the slow reaction time of some components (including speakers). A good transient response is a sign of high quility. For instance, a behringer speaker might have almost the same frequency response as a celestion, but the transient response will be alot worse.

[Paul Marossy]

Think "time response to a single, not repeated stimulus", not "funny elusive disturbance."

Ahh... that makes sense to me. Funny, I wouldn't expect to see transients on a sine wave.  :shock:

Transients are short spikes in the volume. Most commonly, they are at the attack of the note. The very first few vibrations usually make up the transient. Image in the sharp attack, but lack of sustain on a stratocaster. That's a a type of sound with alot of transients.

I am quite familiar with that sound.  

[Johnny G]

Circuit MAker is a really useful little program isnt it, ive been using the student version as well for a while (and im actually a student ) and its damn useful

[Paul Marossy]

Yeah, and it's also a convenient way to draw schematics!  

[petemoore]

Examples:
 Big Honkin' heavy duty 15'' bass speaker will not respond to transients like a 'high quality' 12''er...the 12''er is more responsive to transients becuase of cone weight and structure, and voice coil specs. In this case the user may Want response to transients.
 >>>A transient peak got into the high end driver's diaphram and crumpled it, or ... transient peaks overheated the diaphrams coil.>>I don't know exactly how 'accurate' the statement is, but this user is having problems caused by transients.