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Amplifier
Once the signal has been suitably filtered, it then passes to
the amplifier to be shaped by the amp envelope. The way
that the volume of a sound changes over time is crucial to
our perception of it, and so just like the filter, this is a very
important stage of any synth sound. Believe it or not, on
certain old electronic organs, the only difference between the piano and trombone presets
was the shape of their amp envelopes!! (Bear in mind of course that it took a certain degree of
imagination to hear either as a piano or a trombone!)
A typical 4-stage amplitude envelope forces the sound to follow a specific volume curve
through the following stages - Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release, with Attack determining
the time it takes for the note to reach full volume once a key is pressed, Decay determining
the rate at which it falls to the level at which the note will Sustain, and Release being the time
it takes the sound to decay to silence once the key is released. The Virus PowerCore actually
contains a 5-stage envelope, due to the addition of a Sustain Time parameter. This is used to
create an additional crescendo (volume swell) or decrescendo once the note has reached the
sustain level.
Note that the filter section also has a dedicated envelope for dynamically controlling the cut-
off in a similar fashion.
Effects
Once the sound has been successfully mangled by the filters and amplifier, it then gets sent
to the Effects section. Here you can choose to colour the sound with several different (simul-
taneous) effect types, including Analog Boost, Distortion, Chorus, Phaser, and Delay/Reverb.
Modulation Matrix
Last, but by no means last as it happens, is the mod matrix. This is a very powerful tool that
you can use to dynamically control several parameters at once via a number of different con-
trol sources. The available control sources include LFO's, (see below) envelopes, MIDI note
velocity , modwheel and pitch bend as well as several others.
VIRUS POWERCORE MANUAL
29
GETTING STARTED
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