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Chapter 22 ES2 269
Note: Both ENV 2 and ENV 3 are velocity sensitive, making it unnecessary to set via to
Velo in the Router channel: You can leave via switched off.
The Parameters of ENV 1
At first glance, ENV 1 appears to be rather poorly equipped. Its few parameters,
however, are useful for a vast range of synthesizer functions.
Trigger Modes: Poly, Mono, Retrig
In Poly mode, the envelope generator behaves as you would expect on any polyphonic
synthesizer: Every voice has its own envelope.
In Mono and Retrig modes, a single envelope generator modulates all voices in
parallel—identically, in other words.
• If ENV 1 is set to Mono, all notes must be released before the envelope can be
triggered again. If you play legato, or any key remains depressed, the envelope won’t
start its attack phase again.
• In Retrig mode, the envelope will be triggered by any key you strike, no matter
whether other notes are sustained or not. Every sustained note is affected by the
retriggered envelope.
Note: The design of early analog polysynths led to polyphonic instruments where all
voices passed through a single lowpass filter. This design was primarily due to cost
factors. The best known example of these polyphonic instruments were the Moog
Polymoog, the Yamaha SK20 and Korg Poly 800. The sole lowpass filter of such
instruments is controlled by a single envelope generator. To simulate this behavior, use
the Mono or Retrigger modes.
Note: Say you’ve modulated the Cutoff 2 target with a percussive source, such as ENV1,
which is set to Retrig. If you play and sustain a bass note, this note will receive a
percussive filter effect every time you hit another key. The newly struck key is also
shaped by the same filter. Playing a sound set up in this way feels like you’re playing a
polyphonic synthesizer with one filter. This is despite the fact that the ES2’s filters
remain polyphonic and can be simultaneously modulated by different polyphonic
sources.
Note: If you want to simulate the percussion of a Hammond Organ, you will also need
to use the Mono or Retrigger modes.