I have a new sub 37 and am really having trouble understanding the envelopes on it. I have never had a synth before. Just tweaking the knobs and listening is not really producing much effect and doing nothing to help me understand how to use them. I have read all I can in the owners manual and still just don’t get it.
Anybody have a link to a demo for these on a sub or any other synth that I could go to and sort of copy with my synth to get the hang of it? 
Search YT for demos on Voyager or Phatty. Same concepts.
If you can route the Envelope directly to the pitch of an osc it may become clearer.
Think of a string. You pluck the string and it vibrates back and forth from a distance which we will call A-Z. That initial pluck is the attack.
The string begins to lose its initial energy and dies down. It vibrates a shorter distance we will refer to as A-K. The vibration decreasing from A-Z to A-K is the decay.
That A-K vibration will continue for a period until it slowly begins to lose its energy. This continuing period represents the sustain.
The change in vibration from A-K to a period of no vibration is the release.
If you are holding one note while you pluck the string, this change in vibration represents amplitude, or the strength/volume of the note you are playing.
If you route an Envelope to an Oscillator’s pitch, the Osc’s pitch will rise on the attack. The pitch will then lower during the decay time to the level you set for the sustain. It will hold that pitch for the duration of the sustain. It will then begin to lower again as it follows the release.
The horizontal dotted lines on the image where the line bends indicating the separation between the A, D, S, and R…you can “move” those with an envelope generator. Those lines represent the paramaters you have control over, allowing you you lengthen or shorten the Attack, Decay, Sustain, or Release times.
The best way is to simply experiment with it and keep practicing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqN_uVFOmm0&list=RDaqN_uVFOmm0#t=2
