Advanced Sound Programming
27
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Effective Use of Envelopes
Comments
Envelope
immediate Attack, maximum Sustain, immediate Release
very short Attack, long Decay, zero Sustain, short Release
medium Attack, maximum Sustain, fairly short Release
long Attack, maximum Sustain, long Release
very short Attack, medium Decay, zero Sustain, medium Release (preferably the
same value as Decay)
Instruments
Organ
Piano
French Horn
Musical Saw
Bass Drum
Sub TVA
Main TVA
Result of using both
You have already seen that many sub-sections in the
V-Synth
have their own dedicated envelopes. Here are a few tips to help you make
the most of them:
Typical Envelope Shapes
The
ADSR
envelope was originally developed to mimic the volume, pitch and tonal changes of notes played on existing acoustic and
electromechanical instruments using only a few parameters. Here is a short list of a few real instruments and how to achieve similar results
using an ADSR-type envelope:
Composite TVAs
With only four parameters,
ADSRs
were always a compromise. Although unable to
simulate exactly how (for instance) a real piano note decays, most modern instruments
still use
ADSR
envelopes because they are simple. The
V-Synth
has a solution to this
problem: Each oscillator has its own dedicated
Sub-TVA
, and the signal is sent to a main
TVA
afterwards. This allows for more subtle shapes while retaining the quasi-standard
four parameters (
ADSR
). Remember that many of the
PCM
waves already have a “built
in” envelope, so this is yet another factor to be added to the equation!
