Apart from snapiness - what is essential or nice to have for envelopes, any unique and/or inspiring(analog or digital) ones out there?

Personally - not into the "draw your own" types. The envelopes of the roland d50 looks interistings - anybody play with those? Keytracking A/D/S times seems interisting.

Andrew
Last edited by Ichad.c on Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:52 am; edited 1 time in total

I like the Minimoog ones in the filter section which raise to a higher maximum level when triggered quickly.

Curves - preferably done by (self) modulating the envelopes so that the rate of change can be controlled by the user.

Peace,
Andy.

In layman's terms?

The moog also holds/clips the top apparently.

Glue that sticks well after you lick it, and nice thick paper so you can't see what's inside once it's been sealed.

Sorry, someone had to do it...

The minimoog envelopes - are pretty insane.

http://analog.no/cms/index.php/envelopes

Anything else that goes beyond the ADSR - but still practical?

None of these though, watch out for cheap envelopes, they can be poisonous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt8E_27iyOk

Beyond a basic ADSR it's really just about control of the shape or inserting more points.. ie stuff like an AHDSR or an ADSAR, where the attack will trigger again when you release the sustain.

Software's perfectly suited for this stuff, since you can create an envelope where the user can define spline points and, along with control of the curve shapes between the points (and where it sustains) you can make any envelope you want without too much difficulty.

In combination with layering it's possible to construct an entire song using only the envelopes, if it supports enough points and layers! You could get quite insane options, I suppose, if you actually made envelope points appear/disappear based on certain conditions defined in a mod-matrix or via key-tracking

Emulations of known hardware envelopes are likely more tricky, since you have to take into account other interactions with other components like the VCA.

Plus it's becoming increasingly apparent that, unless TPT (Topology Preserving Transform) coding methods are used for envelopes then, just like filter feedback, there's always going to be a small (but noticeable) difference in the perception of snap/punch with software envelopes VS hardware.

In days gone by I used to think that was all about the shape of the envelope. But, like many things in life, it (apparently) isn't that simple

Being able to adjust the curve of each section really helps IMO, especially in a synth with a lot of wild timbral possibilities, or cases such as phase distortion where a lot of the drastic timbral change happens at one concentrated point in the parameter space. Being able to toggle envelopes restarting vs envelopes jumping off from eachother is good too.

This, although when a dev names them the proper scientific names I get a bit irked.

I want pretty images to soothe my addled brain, not a maths lesson

Good point.

FM8 envelopes : Combine flexibility, ease of use, power.

Then anybody who did not try the trapezoidal Xils 3 enveloppes, or the DsyncAdsr of the Synthix or Oxium might have missed a nice experience.

Perfectly done exponential decay and release. Some synths really lack it.

Correct me if I'm wrong - but isn't a trapezoidal generator - actuall just the gate signal? Or if you want to be fancy - an attack/hold/decay envelope?