Alesis QuadraSynth Plus manual Decay & Sustain 00 to, Amp Envelope Delay 00 to

Editing Programs: Chapter 6

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.

Release (00 to 99)

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 the sustain level back down to nothing. Setting the Release time to 0 is good for playing those short funky riffs that you hear on a clavinet. Setting the Release time to 99 will take the envelope a very long time to reach zero level.

Amp Envelope (Page 2)

Delay (00 to 99)

This is the amount of time that the envelope will wait before doing anything; very useful if you want to affect one element of a sound sometime after the sound starts. When the Delay is set to 0, the envelope attacks right away, without any delay. Play some notes while turning up the delay and see that the time between playing the note and hearing the effect of the Amp Envelope gets progressively longer as the Delay control is turned up.

If the Delay is set above 99, the display will read “Hold”. This indicates that the Delay stage of the envelope will wait indefinitely until the key is released before continuing on to the remaining envelope stages (Attack, Decay, etc.). This requires that the Amp Envelope’s Trigger parameter (see next page) is set to “Freerun”. However, when the Delay is set to “Hold”,

QuadraSynth Plus Piano Reference Manual 114