Transient smearing is the temporal spreading of a sharp, short-duration signal component (a transient) caused by the finite duration and shape of a filter's impulse response. Parameters: (1) the original transient width (typically near-instantaneous), (2) the impulse-response duration of the filter applied, (3) the resulting effective transient width after convolution, (4) the amplitude loss from energy redistribution. Persistence: measurable as waveform distortion in recorded or simulated audio; observable on waveform displays as broadening of peaks. [formal: obnubilatio transiens | substrate: mind | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
transient-smearing
Transient smearing is the temporal spreading of a sharp, short-duration signal component (a transient) caused by the finite duration and shape of a filter's impulse response. Parameters: (1) the original transient width (typically near-ins…
Definition
Why it is in scope
human-made perceptual artifact produced by lossy audio codecs that blurs transient attacks, built to persist in decoded audio output
Names and aliases
- transient-smearingen · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- cmrssifjh00bk145rcznrefirINSTANCE_OF →
Transient smearing is a specific kind of artifact — an unwanted temporal spreading of a signal feature caused by filter impulse response. 'A transient-smearing IS an artifact' reads as a natural classification. The which-came-first test confirms: artifact (epoch 0) is foundational; transient-smearing (epoch 0.01) is the specific case.
- cmsp1itep03r1jlss77l8np5tDEPENDS_ON →
Transient smearing is the temporal spreading of a sharp transient caused by the finite duration and shape of an impulse response. The mechanism is convolution of the transient with the impulse response. Remove impulse-response and the mechanism producing smearing disappears entirely. Direction correct: the artifact (transient-smearing) depends on the mechanism (impulse-response).
- cmsuhqssz000bs2m7p3thvvk3DEPENDS_ON →
transient-smearing only occurs when a lossy audio-codec performs time-frequency analysis and quantization; remove the codec and the artifact disappears
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Record identity
- Created
- Aug 27, 2026, 9:13 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 340c25f8b515e64ad37c7b7b4a064dd3c6e41b1a6caab8962fb7b8baa02e3948