Amplifier Envelope - Sequential prophet 5 User Manual

Amplifier Envelope

After passing through the filter, a synthesized sound goes into the
Amplifier, which controls its overall volume. The Amplifier has a
dedicated, 4-stage envelope generator (attack, decay, sustain, release)
which is used to shape the volume characteristics of a sound over time by
giving you control over these stages. Along with the filter 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.
Amplifier Envelope controls
28 Amplifier Envelope Sequential