Synths with the snappiest envelopes

[chk071]

Do you wanna post a pic of the amp envelope settings? Not sure if i get you there. I just tried to fiddle a bit with the amp envelope settings, but it didn't make too much difference to the sound.

[kv331]

Hey, that's nice to hear. Here is an example from Electra2:

Electra2

Note that there's probably soft synth which are snappier out there, i just think Electra2 has a nice snappy-, creamy- and plasticky-ness to it, which makes sounds like these very nice. Just personal preference, others might disagree. Also analog synth are of course even snappier (so i'd rather take those as a reference). For the example, i used the LP Moog filter in Electra, with some of the analog knob dialed in, first sweep is without resonance, the second with about 50 % resonance, and the last with about 75% resonance. The filter envelope decay is exponential and the slope set to 7.

ok so what do you think of the following sound sample, do you hear any sort of "snappiness" in it ? (LFO modulating sustain level & envelope amount of filter env):

http://www.synthmaster.com/synthmaster/ ... eTest1.mp3

[_al_]

Do you wanna post a pic of the amp envelope settings? Not sure if i get you there. I just tried to fiddle a bit with the amp envelope settings, but it didn't make too much difference to the sound.

well i dont know electra, does it have msegs? where you can move points around? thats really what gives the best punch, cause you can have a really steep attack slope, the quickly levels off into a smooth decay. not just a symetrical line from top to bottom. even normal exponential envs are symetrical, i think, so thats why i prefer multi-point mseg. i can easily tailor the attack strengh, without affecting the main tail. it can cause some over the top attack, without worrying about the tail taking 5 mins to fade out, or fading too fast

[chk071]

Hey, that's nice to hear. Here is an example from Electra2:

[url=http://www40.<span%20class="skimlinks-unlinked">zippyshare.com/v/xJ82qC0Z/file.html</span>]Electra2[/url]

Note that there's probably soft synth which are snappier out there, i just think Electra2 has a nice snappy-, creamy- and plasticky-ness to it, which makes sounds like these very nice. Just personal preference, others might disagree. Also analog synth are of course even snappier (so i'd rather take those as a reference). For the example, i used the LP Moog filter in Electra, with some of the analog knob dialed in, first sweep is without resonance, the second with about 50 % resonance, and the last with about 75% resonance. The filter envelope decay is exponential and the slope set to 7.

ok so what do you think of the following sound sample, do you hear any sort of "snappiness" in it ? (LFO modulating sustain level & envelope amount of filter env):

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.synthmaster.com/synthmaster/ ... .mp3</span>

It's difficult to descibe, it could sound more plucky, more "juicy". When it gets into the bass frequency when closing the filter, it sounds pretty "stump", it just could have more of a plasticky vibe to it, like in my example. I'm sorry to throw with esoteric terms like that around me, but i just fail to explain it better. It could sound a bit more "detailed" and interesting. Mind you, that's just my opinion.

[chk071]

Do you wanna post a pic of the amp envelope settings? Not sure if i get you there. I just tried to fiddle a bit with the amp envelope settings, but it didn't make too much difference to the sound.

well i dont know electra, does it have msegs? where you can move points around? thats really what gives the best punch, cause you can have a really steep attack slope, the quickly levels off into a smooth decay. not just a symetrical line from top to bottom. even normal exponential envs are symetrical, i think, so thats why i prefer multi-point mseg. i can easily tailor the attack strengh, without affecting the main tail. it can cause some over the top attack, without worrying about the tail taking 5 mins to fade out, or fading too fast

Nope, you can only set the slopes of all envelope stages, not separately. What do you mean with steep attack slope? I was under the impression for sounds like these, you'd use normally use an immediate attack, like, set the slider to max? You get a better result when using an exponential attack curve, and let it fade in slightly (fast)?

[_al_]

yeah sorry i dont mean asdr attack. im talking about the way the mseg first attacks. the first point

with mseg, it can be toally out of proportion to the rest of the env

[tristan-]

Here's an example of how snappy Sylenth1 is. I made a very simple saw bass sound, tweaked the envelope amount and decay a bit through time. Tell me what you guys think.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/opbeiosyhioi5 ... 2.wav?dl=0

[do_androids_dream]

Here's an example of how snappy Sylenth1 is. I made a very simple saw bass sound, tweaked the envelope amount and decay a bit through time. Tell me what you guys think.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/opbeiosyhioi5 ... 2.wav?dl=0

These dropbox links never play for me.

[tristan-]

Here's an example of how snappy Sylenth1 is. I made a very simple saw bass sound, tweaked the envelope amount and decay a bit through time. Tell me what you guys think.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/opbeiosyhioi5 ... 2.wav?dl=0

These dropbox links never play for me.

Doesn't play for me either now. How can I upload a .wav and embed it here? soundcloud makes it 128kbps mp3 and you can't quite notice the "snap"

[tristan-]

I uploaded to MediaFire instead of Dropbox. You need to wait for the file to finish loading, or just download it from the second link. Here it is:

Here's an example of how snappy Sylenth1 is. I made a very simple saw bass sound, tweaked the envelope amount and decay a bit through time. Tell me what you guys think.

Listen:
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/nm8iztd ... enth_2.wav

DL:
https://www.sendspace.com/file/tv0msz

[kv331]

It's difficult to descibe, it could sound more plucky, more "juicy". When it gets into the bass frequency when closing the filter, it sounds pretty "stump", it just could have more of a plasticky vibe to it, like in my example. I'm sorry to throw with esoteric terms like that around me, but i just fail to explain it better. It could sound a bit more "detailed" and interesting. Mind you, that's just my opinion.

I see. I figured out the root cause: The envelope times in SM start at 6 ms. So a basic attack+decay is minimum 12 ms. NOT snappy at all

Now let's figure out a way to lower that to 1 milliseconds without breaking backwards compatibility. I guess that was the reason why I overlooked this issue so far.

Maybe a new dropdown parameter called "Envelope time" would solve the issue so we can add envelope times of different synths. I have taken a lot of measurements from different synths so now is the time to add those to SM

[Mutant]

re. Dropbox: right click and open in new window, then download.

Also in this case there is no need for stereo.
But that snappy sylenth wav finally shows me clearly what "snappy" means.

[Lotuzia]

Another possibility to get *max snap* is given by synths who can modulate EV segments, and/or EV output, including self modulations ( Like Xils-lab and some others ) It might not be as visual as MSEGS, but its very efficient, and also can do things that MSEG cant do. Very fast to operate too. Then, for those who like to see, you need your ears, you cant *see* the result.

I like these kind of features that cant be directly seen on the GUI/UI. Oblige people to use their ears, wich is not a bad thing imho.

[cytospur]

What's an EV?

[tristan-]

Another possibility to get *max snap* is given by synths who can modulate EV segments, and/or EV output, including self modulations ( Like Xils-lab and some others ) It might not be as visual as MSEGS, but its very efficient, and also can do things that MSEG cant do. Very fast to operate too. Then, for those who like to see, you need your ears, you cant *see* the result.

I like these kind of features that cant be directly seen on the GUI/UI. Oblige people to use their ears, wich is not a bad thing imho.

To me, it doesn't matter if it's visual or not.. Sylenth1 is clearly one of the snappiest synths around with envelope snap similar to that of a Virus, that can be clearly heard in my example above. But I agree that newer synths should show visual representations like Dune 2 or Massive.