Pittsburgh Modular Microvolt 3900, Manual

Page: 49 / 70

49
17. Envelope Generator
The envelope generator section is a four stage (attack, decay, sustain, release) envelope generator that smooths
the shape of the incoming gates and triggers to produce a more expressive instrument. The envelope generator
output can be used to control the amplitude of an oscillator, the cutoff frequency of a filter or any other function
that accepts control voltages.
The incoming gate or trigger signal passes through each of the four stages to output an envelope. When the
envelope generator module receives a gate or trigger signal, the attack slider(41) determines the amount of time
needed for the envelope generator to reach the peak output voltage and move on to the decay stage. The decay
slider(42) sets the amount of time needed to transition to the level set by the sustain slider(43). The sustain level
is maintained as long as the incoming gate remains on or high. Once the incoming gate goes low or off, the
release slider(44) sets the time needed to close the envelope and return the envelope generator output to 0 volts.
Envelope Generator Patching Note
•
A classic monosynth sound can be achieved by patching the output jack(119) of the envelope generator into
the binary filter frequency modulation input jack (120). This syncs the filter and VCA modulation. Adjust the
binary filter frequency modulation trimmer(17) until the shape of the envelope can be heard in the filter
sweep.