What does the envelope do? Learning.

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garagebandking41
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Joined: Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:03 pm

What does the envelope do? Learning.

Post by garagebandking41 » Mon May 28, 2012 3:54 am

I've had a LP for a while, but never fully grasped the envelope. I know how it shapes the sound in terms of knobs/sounds, but didn't understand what was going on signal-wise. So I downloaded a free oscilloscope/spectrum program to take a look at the waveforms and frequencies coming out of the LP.

I made a video shortly after about my conclusions. It's pretty basic, but I would like the community's feedback to see if I got it right. Would really appreciate the feedback.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdODqd-YMcM

-Mike

EricK
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Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 2:09 pm

Re: What does the envelope do? Learning.

Post by EricK » Mon May 28, 2012 12:48 pm

Thank you for making a beginners video. There really aren't enough of these.

I would change some things in your video description of what's going on, but I don't want to nitpick.

It could be confusing for someone who knows nothing about synthesis to read that a filter controls and manipulates an osc using an envgen.

What is so hard about trying to explain synthesis is even in the most simplest terms, it is still pretty laden with nomenclature.

I applaud your efforts to teach these principles.




The envelope generator shapes a control signal over time by assigning a variable value to the attack, decay, sustain, and release that you can send to another destination such as a filter or VCA.

Eric
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chromium
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Re: What does the envelope do? Learning.

Post by chromium » Mon May 28, 2012 2:42 pm

garagebandking41 wrote:I know how it shapes the sound in terms of knobs/sounds, but didn't understand what was going on signal-wise. So I downloaded a free oscilloscope/spectrum program to take a look at the waveforms and frequencies coming out of the LP.
Hey if it helps at all, check out the owner's manual for the ARP 2600. There's one posted here: http://soundprogramming.net/manuals/Arp_2600_Manual.pdf. I think it does a decent job of explaining things like this (for example, see pp.10-12 for intro to envelopes), and the concepts are all still relevant to the LP.

Nice vid!
Regards,
Joe

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