User Manual
24 Amplier Envelope
Dave Smith Instruments
To adjust the responsiveness of the lter envelope:
1. Select a program — such as a synth brass sound — that has a slightly
soft but bright attack.
2. Repeatedly play a series of notes or chords on the keyboard, so you can
hear the effect of the adjustments as you follow the steps below.
3. In the Poly Mod section, enable the lp filter as the only destination
(disable all other Poly Mod destinations such as freq 1, freq 2 etc.).
4. In the Poly Mod section, turn the
filter env control slightly counter-
clockwise. Try a setting of about 11 o’clock.
5. Continue to play a series of chords and turn the
env amount knob
clockwise in the low-pass filter section. Try moving it back and forth
between 1 o’clock and 3 o’clock.
6. As you do this, compare different settings of the Poly Mod filter env
control, the Low-Pass Filter env amount, and different Attack, Decay,
Sustain, and Release settings on the Filter Envelope.
The interaction of these controls is worth exploring for greater exibility
and control of the Filter Envelope.
Amplier Envelope
After passing through the lters, a synthesized sound goes into an analog
voltage controlled amplier or VCA, which controls its overall loudness.
The VCA has a dedicated, four-stage envelope generator.
The Amplier Envelope is used to shape the volume characteristics of
a sound over time by giving you control over its attack, decay, sustain,
and release stages. Along with the lter envelope, this is one of the most
important factors in designing a sound.
Without a volume envelope, the loudness of a sound wouldn’t change
over the duration of a note. It would begin immediately, remain at its full
volume for the duration of the note, then end immediately when the note
was released. Again, that’s not very interesting sonically and it’s not typi-
cally how instruments behave in the real world.