#Class 7

Emily Turner
Apr 8, 2020
2 min read

Scienc-y Synth Stuff

I honestly had so much fun playing around with this! Call me a nerd if you like, but don't hate on me till you've had a fiddle yourself at: https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/envelopes/modulating-amplitude-with-envelopes !!! :)

ADSR

Attack: The initial sound, having a gradual build or a sharp, loud attack. You can control the level of attack.

Decay: The loudness of the sound after the initial attack.

If the decay has a lower amplitude than the attack, it will decrease in volume.
If the decay has the same amplitude as the attack, it will stay the same volume until the release.

You can control how loud you want the main sound to be.

Sustain: How long the main (decay) loudness of sound holds/sustains for. You can control how long the note is sustained for.

Release: The decrease of sound until the end. You can control the intensity of the decrescendo.

Musical application?

Well, when editing or mixing sound ADSR looks a little something like this:

*This photo is screen-shotted from SoundTrap (my favourite music mixing app)

Exploring ADSR in SoundTrap

I unfortunately lost my initial SoundTrap ADSR explorations :((( I spent ages on them because I was having a lot of fun, and then forgot to save it before I turned off my computer!! Silly Emily...

So I've had a second (less detailed) fiddle to show you guys some stuff I came up with :)

Using James' original synth (ADSR below), I made random stuff up and came up with this:

I named it Teleophone Sound, becuase that's EXACTLY what it sounds like!!! You know when you dial off your landline and they hang up and it goes BEEEEEP ???? THAT'S THE SOUND! Jame's synth effect with notes Ab and Bb. You're welcome.

I then fiddled with the set ADSR to make my own, similar version. Here is the random improv from James ADSR, followed by my edited ADSR: