Alesis QuadraSynth Plus Filter Envelope

Editing Programs: Chapter 6

QuadraSynth Plus Piano Reference Manual 109

This determines how keyboard dynamics will affect the

envelope level. When set to 99, note velocity controls the

envelope’s output; notes played hard will deliver a higher

envelope output than notes played soft. When set to 0, note

velocity will have no effect on the envelope’s output level.

Filter Envelope

Filter Envelope is crucial whenever you want the tonal quality of

a note to change over time, differently from its overall level.

Example: When you want the initial attack of a note to be bright,

but want the sustaining part to be filtered.

The following Filter Envelope variables will only have any effect if the

FILTER ENVELOPE DEPTH (on Page 2 of the FILTER function) is

set to a value other than 0, or, Filter Envelope is a source in the MOD

function.

Also note that the Filter Envelope may have no effect if some other

modulation source, or the basic setting of the filter, has already pushed

the filter cutoff frequency to its maximum.

Attack (00 to 99)

This is the amount of time the envelope will take until it reaches

its maximum output level. Setting the Attack to 0 will give a

sharp edge to the sound (if the Delay is also set to 0 in FENV

Page 2--see below); 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)

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.