Alesis QSR 64 Pitch Envelope, Attack 00 to, Decay & Sustain 00 to Pages 2, Release 00 to 99, Hold

Editing Programs: Chapter 6

PITCH ENVELOPE

The Pitch Envelope function can lead to dramatic effects, since it can cause the pitch of a single key to change drastically over time. It’s typically used in special-effect synthesizer programs, but it may also be used more subtly in an acoustic program to simulate the characteristic of some instruments to go sharp on the initial attack, especially when played hard.

✪The following Pitch Envelope variables will have an effect only if the PITCH ENVELOPE DEPTH (on Page 7 of the PITCH function) is set to a value other than 0, or, if Pitch Envelope is a source in the MOD function.

Attack (00 to 99) Page 1

This is the amount of time the envelope will take until it reaches its maximum output level. Setting the Attack to 0 will make the pitch go to maximum immediately on hitting the key (if the Delay is also set to 0 in Pitch Envelope, Page 5 -- see next page); a setting of 99 will result in a much slower attack, taking many seconds before the envelope gets to maximum.

Decay & Sustain (00 to 99) Pages 2 & 3

As soon as the attack portion of the envelope finishes (when the level reaches maximum), the envelope will decay (decrease in level). The level it reaches is set by the Sustain control; how long it takes to get there is set by the Decay control. In the special case where the Sustain level is all the way up (99), then there is no decrease and the Decay time segment is bypassed. Whatever level the sustain is set to is the level that the decay section of the envelope will head for. Depending on the setting of the Sustain Decay control (see below), the envelope will either hold at the sustain level until you release the note on the keyboard, or decay to 0 at the Sustain Decay rate (which is on page 2 of the envelope). You can create a long "plateau" at the start of a note by setting the Sustain to 98 and the Decay to 99. This will cause the envelope to take the maximum amount of time to get from peak level to a level of 98, before the Sustain Release portion of the envelope begins.

Release (00 to 99, Hold) Page 4

Eventually, you will let go of the note that you’ve been holding (either by releasing the note on the keyboard, or releasing the sustain pedal if it was pressed). It is at this point that the Release portion of the envelope takes effect. The Release is the time that the envelope takes to get from its current level back down to nothing. Setting the Release time to 99 will take the envelope a very long time to reach zero level.

The Pitch Envelope is unique from the other two envelopes in that its Release time can be set above 99. When this is done, the value in the display will read “Hold”. This indicates that the Pitch Envelope will remain where it is even after the note is released. This is important when you want the pitch effect to continue even after releasing the key. Example: If the Pitch Envelope is bending a note up, and you don’t want the pitch to fall when you release the key, set the Release parameter to “Hold”.

QSR Reference Manual 19