A kind of ADSR Envelope Playground that allows you to control how a sound begins, sustains and decays. Controls can be tapped on computer keyboard, or dragged around using your mouse. It’s intended as an exercise in hearing the contrast between, for example, a soft swell and a sharp pluck, in real time.
This is a graph of amplitude over time in main area. It have four white handles for attack, decay, sustain, and release. These can be clicked and dragged around to modify shape of the curve. Moving the attack and decay handles horizontally change how long it takes for sound to start and end. The sustain handle move vertically to alter volume level when you are holding the note. The release handle control the length of time the sound persists once you have stopped holding the note.
How to Use the Sound Controls
A big button marked Hold the sound gate sits below graph, which is your note trigger. Press and hold that button down to begin the sound and release it to listen to the release phase. Beside it are two smaller buttons labelled Trace; one is for the full contour, which automatically play the whole envelope from beginning to end. Handy if you don’t want to have to manually hold a key down to hear the full shape.
Refine your sound using this set of controls on the right. Start your shaping based off the presets in the Contour recipes section (Cloud swell, Pizzicato snap). In the Exciter character section, choose among a clarinet square wave, a reed saw wave, or a round triangle wave. Use the slider on the Gate pitch to change its frequency anywhere between 110 Hz and 660 Hz. Listen to how the envelope sounds at various pitches.
The timing trials enable you to try out various lengths for the notes. They shows when you lift the gate during the attack, decay, or sustain stages. It lets you hear what kind of difference it makes cutting a note short. There is also the option of switching between Exponential circuit law and Straight segment law, which change the mathematical curve of the attack and decay times. Release time has an exponential tail to give a naturaly fade out every time.
You can adjust white handles by dragging them with your mouse, or you can use arrow keys to move them and tab between them. Use the Z key or Space bar to activate the hold on the sound gate, just like on synth keyboard. If you’d rather navigate with a keyboard than a mouse then holding down Shift whilst moving the controls with arrow keys will make bigger parameter changes. This is good for fine tuning or when navigating with keyboard.
If you want to use this tool to its best effect, listen to the Cloud swell preset alongside the Pizzicato snap preset at the same pitch. You’ll notice that changing the attack time alter the character of sound in important ways. Drag the attack handle really far to the right, tap the gate just before it reaches a peak, and you’ll see what happens when you play short notes with long attacks: they tend to be quiet. Compare the gain ramps between the two modes; experiment with the linear and exponential curve mode to find your preferance. Click on the Trace one full contour button to listen to the preset sounds first. Dragging the sustain handle downward should of cause the volume to decrease as it holds. Use the pitch slider to set a frequency that works comfortabley in your ears.
There are no wrong settings here. Only different texture options is waiting for you to try. Begin moving the handles around to shape sound envelope of your choosing.