ADSR envelope - Citizendia

An ADSR envelope is a component of many synthesizers, samplers, and other electronic musical instruments. A sampler is an electronic musical instrument closely related to a Synthesizer. An electronic musical instrument is a Musical instrument that produces its sounds using Electronics. Its function is to modulate some aspect of the instrument's sound — often its volume — over time. In Music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key ( tonic, or tonal center) to another Sound' is Vibration transmitted through a Solid, Liquid, or Gas; particularly sound means those vibrations composed of Frequencies The envelope may be a discrete circuit or module (in the case of analog devices), or implemented as part of the unit's software (in the case of digital devices).

When a mechanical musical instrument produces sound, the volume of the sound produced changes over time in a way that varies from instrument to instrument. A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified for the purpose of making Music. Loudness is the quality of a Sound that is the primary psychological correlate of physical strength (amplitude When a pipe organ's key is pressed, for example, it plays a note at constant volume; the sound dies quickly when the key is released. The pipe organ is a Musical instrument that produces sound when pressurized air (wind is driven through a series of pipes, controlled by a keyboard By contrast, the sound of a guitar is loudest immediately after a string is plucked, and quickly fades. The guitar is a Musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles

A synthesizer's ADSR envelope is a way to tailor the timbre for the synth, sometimes to make it sound more like a mechanical instrument. In Music, timbre (ˈtæm-bər' like timber, or, from Fr timbre tɛ̃bʁ is the quality of a Musical note or sound that distinguishes different A quick attack with little decay helps it sound more like an organ; a longer decay and zero sustain makes it sound more like a guitar. While envelopes are most often applied to volume, they are also commonly used to control other sound elements, such as filter frequencies or oscillator pitches.

The contour of the ADSR envelope is specified using four parameters:

Attack: How quickly the sound reaches full volume after the sound is activated (the key is pressed). For most mechanical instruments, this period is virtually instantaneous. However, for some popular synthesized "voices" that don't mimic real instruments, this parameter is slowed down. 'Slow attack' is commonly part of sounds called 'pads'. A synth pad is a sustained tone generated by a Synthesizer, often employed for background harmony and atmosphere in much the same fashion that a string section is often used
Decay: How quickly the sound drops to the sustain level after the initial peak.
Sustain: The "constant" volume that the sound takes after decay until the note is released. Note that this parameter specifies a volume level rather than a time period.
Release: How quickly the sound fades when a note ends (the key is released). Often, this time is very short. An example where the release is longer might be a percussion instrument like a glockenspiel, or a piano with the sustain pedal pressed. The glockenspiel ( German, "set of bells quot or "play-bells" also known as orchestra bells and in its portable The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers A sustain or sustaining pedal (also damper pedal or loud pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern Piano.

While ADSR envelopes are a useful first approximation to the volumes of real instruments, they are not a complete substitute. Woodwind and brass instruments give the player the ability to vary the sound arbitrarily throughout a note, for instance. Types of woodwind instruments See also List of woodwind instruments Single-reed instruments use a reed, which is a thin cut A brass instrument is a Musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibration of the lips as the player blows into a tubular Resonator. Many synthesizers, therefore, offer more flexible facilities for volume control which can be used if desired.

On older synthesizers, such as the Korg MS-20, a common variation on the ADSR was ADSHR (attack, decay, sustain, hold, release). is a Japanese Multinational corporation that manufactures electronic Musical instruments and Electronic tuners The company is one of the By adding a "hold" parameter, the system allowed notes to be held at the sustain level for a length of time before decaying. The General Instruments AY-3-8912 sound chip included the hold time only; the sustain level was not programmable. AY-3-8910 is a 3-voice Programmable Sound Generator (PSG designed by General Instrument, initially for use with their 16-bit CP1610 or one of the PIC1650 series Another common variation in the same vein is the AHDSR (attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelope, in which the "hold" parameter controls how long the envelope stays at full volume before entering the decay phase.

The ADSR was first specified by Vladimir Ussachevsky in 1965, then head of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, while suggesting improvements for Bob Moog's pioneering work on synthesizers. Vladimir Kirilovitch Ussachevsky ( Hailar, Manchuria, November 3, 1911 &ndash New York, New York, January 2, Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar. The Computer Music Center ( CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and Computer music research in the United States Dr Robert Arthur Moog (ˈmoʊɡ to rhyme with "rogue" ( May 23, 1934 &ndash August 21, 2005) was an American pioneer of [1] An early implementation of ADSR can be found on the Hammond Novachord.

Inverted ADSR envelope

Some electronic musical instruments allow to invert the ADSR envelope. This results in opposite behaviour compared to the normal ADSR envelope: during the attack phase, the modulated sound parameter fades out from the maximum amplitude to zero, then, during the decay phase, rises up to the value specified by the sustain parameter. After the key has been released, the sound parameter rises from the sustain amplitude back to maximum amplitude.