oh TA gods, tell me, what is a filter envelope?

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-- oh TA gods, tell me, what is a filter envelope?

Posted by wrzonance on Mar-27-2006 08:27:

oh TA gods, tell me, what is a filter envelope?

Quick questions:

I've been here for a decent while. And I did some searches on the boards for "filter envelope."

And while I've played with the filter envelope while programming synths (Vanguard, Albino, impOSCar) etc. I still am having a hard time wrapping my brain around with filter envelope is actually doing. I'm about to do some more google searching on it.

Here's what I get.

AMP envelope is easy.

Attack - how fast/slow the sound starts (basically)
Decay - how quickly it "decays" from the first attack (quick attack quick decay gives you a "punch"
Sustain - how long the note plays when you've pressed they key down (short for bass and lead plucks, and long for pads and deep basses)
Release - how long it takes the sound to end (LONG for pads, but very short for percussive synths and leads and basslines)

But how exactly does this apply to filter envelopes? I'm a bufuddled. However I know for a fact I can't continue programming good synths without understanding what it's doing to the sound, why i'm using it, and how it works!

Would appreciate any knowledge from you more experienced synth programmers (cybernetica's my hero) and DigiNut if he has the time to post... I searched the tutorials. But didn't really find anything. Maybe I'm just lazy though.

Thanks.

---Adam

edit: sigh, nm, I think I just found the answer to my question on teh google. And it looks familar. Sigh.

however....... would still enjoy some thoughts? Please?

ps: lied about quick questions

EDIT AGAIN: yay I kinda get it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But is the ADSR in filter envelopes referring to how "open" the filter is? I'm still not clear on this.

Posted by djsphere on Mar-27-2006 08:55:

it's the exact same thing as the amp envelope, except it controls the cutoff freq of the filter in stead of the gain volume.

Posted by wrzonance on Mar-27-2006 09:08:

quote:
Originally posted by djsphere
it's the exact same thing as the amp envelope, except it controls the cutoff freq of the filter in stead of the gain volume.

K so quick attac = ON. Slow attack means.... my filter is OPEN and then it closes it back down to where it's ON again?

Hmmm. I'm pretty sure I got it now. Thanks.

Posted by Eldritch on Mar-27-2006 12:43:

Actually you got the sustain wrong.
It controls the level after the decay not duration. (Full sustain makes the decay have no effect on the sound)

Keep in mind that filter envelopes also have a Envelope Amount knob and/or Invert Button.
The Env. Amount knob controls how much the filter is affected by the envelope and the invert button makes the envelope affect the filter negatively instead. (Sometimes this function is part of the Env. Amount knob, the Env. Amount knob will just have negative values also)

Posted by wrzonance on Mar-27-2006 19:11:

quote:
Originally posted by Eldritch
Actually you got the sustain wrong.
It controls the level after the decay not duration. (Full sustain makes the decay have no effect on the sound)

Thanks for clearing that up actually. I've never quite had a good grasp on the relationship between decay and sustain.

Damnit. Being in Colorado kinda sucks, I really want to be back in my studio working on some choons.