Envelope Generators - E-Mu Vintage Keys Operation Manual

PROGRAMMING BASICS
Percussion
Organ
String
Plucked
••• The generalized envelope
shapes of a few types of
sounds are shown above.

ENVELOPE GENERATORS

An envelope can be described as a "contour" which can be used to
shape the sound in some way over time. Each channel of the Vintage
Keys contains two envelope generators. One of the envelope genera-
tors, the Alternate Volume Envelope, controls the volume of the
primary or secondary instrument over time and has 5 stages, Attack,
Hold, Decay, Sustain, and Release. The other envelope, the Auxiliary
Envelope, can be routed to any realtime control destination and is a
general purpose envelope. The Auxiliary Envelope has 6 stages: Delay,
Attack, Hold, Decay, Sustain, and Release. The time of each stage can
be adjusted to create myriad envelope shapes, which in turn shape the
sound. The Envelope parameters can be described as follows:
• Delay
The time between when a key is played and when the attack
phase begins.
• Attack
The time it takes to go from zero to the peak (full) level.
• Hold
The time the envelope will stay at the peak level before starting
the decay phase.
• Decay
The time it takes the envelope to go from the peak level to the
sustain level.
• Sustain
The level at which the envelope remains as long as a key is held
down.
• Release
The time it takes the envelope to fall to the zero level after the
key is released.
level
time
A
key
down
30 Vintage Keys Operation Manual
S
H D R
key
released