Envelope Attack and Decay curves

[Montyrivers]

Hi all,

So, I've been putting my Rev 2 through some patch making and I was curious about some of your own experiences using the envelope attack and decay stages as modulation destinations.

Being that the Rev 2's envelopes are quite snappy, I tried using env3 and the VCA envelope to modulate the LPFdecay parameter for some subtle but interesting results when making plucked patches.

I guess two things that I am curious about is

what are the attack and decay "shapes" or "rates" of the three envelopes of the Rev 2?

 What useful ways can we affect those shapes using the different modulation parameters such as attack/decay, env depth, etc?

[dslsynth]

There is a short note in the Tempest manual about modulating envelope curves. Could be worth reading.

[Montyrivers]

There is a short note in the Tempest manual about modulating envelope curves. Could be worth reading.

Thanks for that.  I just looked. it more or less draws a simple diagram using the same env decay mod source as the rev 2.  When setting an envelope as a mod source it can actually modulate itself to increase the exponential shape/rate of the decay stage. 

[Razmo]

Yes... and that Filter->Decay rate trick is also the optimum way to do a lot of percussion... especially kick drums.

[philroyjenkins]

I've messed with this a bit too. Using an envelope to modulate its own decay stage to alter the curve.

In general with these kinds of experiments I like to have only a self osc filter playing and I use a spectragram to help visualize some of the changes.

Not quite what you asked but some other cool things to do with the envelopes as modulations:

For long pads I like to map resonance to the LPF ENV so that it swells in along with the cutoff. Its pretty nice and gives a filter sweep a unique feel. Same goes for noise.

I'll also use the HPF effect and map it to the LPF ENV but in a negative amount. One filter goes up while the other down. Makes fot some funky basses.

Keynote modulate on attack and decay and be fun for a patch that goes from somewhat bassy to full on ambient pads over a few octaves.

A neat trick is that you can double up any of the keynote modulations which will shorten the range where the full effect takes place.

Another neat quicky - The DC as modulation source. Sometimes during patching you'll find your cutoff is already at its minimum even though you have several things patched to it that have it raised. Using DC you can offset just about any parameter just to nudge your modulations where you want them.

[Montyrivers]

I've messed with this a bit too. Using an envelope to modulate its own decay stage to alter the curve.

In general with these kinds of experiments I like to have only a self osc filter playing and I use a spectragram to help visualize some of the changes.

Not quite what you asked but some other cool things to do with the envelopes as modulations:

For long pads I like to map resonance to the LPF ENV so that it swells in along with the cutoff. Its pretty nice and gives a filter sweep a unique feel. Same goes for noise.

I'll also use the HPF effect and map it to the LPF ENV but in a negative amount. One filter goes up while the other down. Makes fot some funky basses.

Keynote modulate on attack and decay and be fun for a patch that goes from somewhat bassy to full on ambient pads over a few octaves.

A neat trick is that you can double up any of the keynote modulations which will shorten the range where the full effect takes place.

Another neat quicky - The DC as modulation source. Sometimes during patching you'll find your cutoff is already at its minimum even though you have several things patched to it that have it raised. Using DC you can offset just about any parameter just to nudge your modulations where you want them.

That's a lot of great advice.  I've also been experimenting using noise -> cutoff and an envelope to audiomod as a more subtle effect for pads