User Manual

35
Pro 3 User’s Guide
Amplier Envelope
Amplier Envelope
After passing through the lters, a synthesized sound goes into an
amplier, which controls its overall volume. The amplier has a
dedicated, 5-stage envelope generator (attack, decay, sustain, release,
plus delay) which is used to shape the volume characteristics of a sound
over time by giving you control over these stages. Along with the lter
envelope, this is one of the most important aspects of a synthesized
sound.
Without a volume envelope, the volume of a sound wouldn’t change
over the duration of a note. It would begin immediately, remain at its full
volume for its 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.
To give you a real-world example, the main difference between the sound
of the wind and the sound of a snare drum is that they have very different
volume envelopes. Otherwise, they are essentially both white noise.
Wind has a relatively slow attack, a long sustain, and a long decay and
release. A snare drum has a sharp attack, no sustain, and very little decay
or release. But again, they are both fundamentally white noise.
VELOCITY ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE AMOUNT
ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASEAUX ENV AMOUNT
VELOCITY ATTACK DECAY SUSTAIN RELEASE AMOUNT
1 2
ENVELOPES
AMP
FILTER
AUX
Amplier Envelope
attack decay sustain release
amplitude
time
note offnote on
delay
A typical 5-stage, DADSR envelope