The 2 Envelope Triggering Options

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to understand how the 2 Env. Trigger options work.

As per the manual:

A dot to the left of the visual representation of the envelope indicates that the envelope will restart from level zero each time it is trigged. Envelope shapes without a dot means the envelope will start from the level it had when being trigged.

My other experience with envelope trigger options is with a Moog Sub 37, so I’m trying to draw knowledge from that synth to the A4 when appropriate. Going by that manual excerpt, it seems that the A4’s triggering option is similar to the Sub 37’s Reset button.

So I’m expecting something like this to happen if I choose an envelope shape option without the dot: if I have the Filter Cutoff barely open, the Filter envelope set to sweep it open and the Filter envelope’s Sustain set high, when I hit the next note it will begin at the high frequency set by the Filter envelope’s Sustain, instead of beginning at the low frequency set by the Filter Cutoff. Is that how it should be working? If so, I can’t replicate it on the A4. If not, could you please educate me on how the 2 trigger options work?

Also, concerning the envelope shape options, since I’ve never had experience with a secondary phase of envelope shaping, I don’t know yet when it’s best to choose which shapes. When you’re not trying to go for particularly unconventional sounds, is it a good tact to simply have your amp. and filter envelopes be the same type (#2 with #2, #11, with #11, etc)?

Thank you for any help.

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Bump for some visibility.

This is how the undotted envelope of the A4 behaves.

Answers may come quicker if your post were more concise.

I don’t imitate real world objects/instruments with the A4 but would imagine that in most cases the same envelope type, for amp and filter, would work best.

There’s no set rule, just experiment with the shapes till you hear what you like
and suits the music.

They’re just exponential and linear shapes



Kinda like this. :slight_smile:

Where the level is at the moment of trig - not necessarily in the sustain phase.

And the dot is not about linear vs exponential. That’s rather visible in the curvature of the icons.

I don’t own an Analog Four, but I would imagine that these behaviours depend on whether you are using the sequencer or are live playing, and on the available settings (note lengths, LEGATO mode, etc) that you are using. Could you provide some more detail about the circumstances in which you’re trying to replicate the envelope behaviour?

The physical structure of most objects leads to brightness increasing with increasing amplitude, so there is something natural about using the same shapes for the two envelopes. But with a synthesiser, you are not constrained to using natural formations, so use whatever sounds best to you.

[quote="“gigerbone”"]

This is how the undotted envelope of the A4 behaves.[/quote]
Thanks for confirming. The problem is that it’s not behaving that way when I choose the undotted env. shape. It always restarts from the beginning of the env. So in my example, successive notes start immediately with the higher frequency set by the Filter Env.'s Sustain.

Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time and effort for those illustrations. I feel like I’m watching one of your videos! :stuck_out_tongue:

The way you’ve illustrated it is exactly, I believe, congruent with how I explained my expectation of how it would work in my beginning post. Is that correct?

It’s just that it’s not behaving that way as I mention in the reply just above.

I’ve tried with several patches, but ultimately spent most of my time testing it all in an Init. sound.

I have the sound parameters as I described in my beginning post. I’ve tried playing in varying combinations of live playing, live playing and grid recording into the sequencer, Legato On and Off and also Portamento set to Legato with Legato Mode On.

No matter the combination of settings or manner of playing, the amp/filter envelopes always start anew, even when the un-dotted Env. shape is selected.

That’s great to know. I’m not much interested in recreating acoustic, naturally occurring sounds, but knowing that is elucidating.

Thanks.

I think I figured it out.

My expectation/understanding of how dotted and un-dotted envelopes should work, as described in my first post, is correct. The reason it didn’t behave on the A4 as I anticipated is because, unlike the Moog Sub 37, the un-dotted amp./filter envelope only resumes if you’re not playing legato (not in reference to “Legato Mode”).

Is there a way to have the un-dotted envelopes resume from where the previous note was released even when playing legato? I don’t have a preference for this approach. Just curious if it can be configured this way.

:+1:

Again, I can’t check this in person, but maybe you could set the envelope release time to be very long?

Again, I can’t check this in person, but maybe you could set the envelope release time to be very long?[/quote]
Even with release times set to max (126) or Infinite, it doesn’t work when playing Legato. Not a problem though. Just a different way of working.

The definition of playing legato means you don’t release the previous note and the envelope doesn’t enter its release phase.

It’s just that it’s not behaving that way as I mention in the reply just above.

Sorry. I read your post too quickly. And I wasn’t close to my machines and being able to try it out.

Great that you figured it out, though!

I’m bought A4 6 months ago and I already experiment for understand more deeply the synth. I just discovered that is good to play with for example, Amp Env with trig on and Env Env filter trig off. Any explanation about that? Or your experience, I think is a very good for the dynamic of the pattern but I have to experiment with that

One really simple example:

Suppose you have a pad sound with a very long release stage and you trigger the next note while the previous envelope isn’t finished. Due to voice stealing a dotted amp envelope would result in an immediate volume change due to the envelope restarting from 0. When using a non-dotted amp envelope the next note already starts at the volume the previously note was cut off.

So in general: whenever you don’t want to have abrupt changes use non-dotted envelopes. This way successive notes blend better into each other.

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Hey, can you tell me how or what determines when the ENV gets triggered to happen? When I assign the ENV and give it some depth i get a looping envelope where it triggers the ENV to happen repeatedly and faster the shorter I set the decay. Instead of this I want the env to happen when I play a note, you know? :thinking:

Edit: Sorry I have a macro knob that has ENV F’s sustain turned all the way up (if I turn that down it stops happening) but I still don’t understand why it would give this envelope looping behaviour.

Got to admit I don’t understand that either.

I sold my Elektron gear recently so I never will, fist hand at least.

But odd things certainly happened from time to time, contrary to how the manual described operation.
The price one pays for complex boxes, though there could easily still be a simple explanation hiding somewhere.

Hope you solve it.

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