Tag Archive for: envelope

Expressiveness Sound Design

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One of my favourite topics is about one of the most helpful tools involved in music sound synthesis: Envelopes.

Years ago, I was searching online for essential tips on sound design and ended up in an interview with someone who worked in the industry. While I don’t remember who it was or what he was talking about, the one thing that struck me was how he explained that the most exciting part of his design was related to envelopes. In other words, he said that what made some sound designs “next level” was how they were used.

 

Every sound around us has envelopes, even constant background sounds such as a the low hum of a fridge.

 

In sound design, an envelope is a reactive control mechanism that shapes how a parameter, such as amplitude, pitch, or filter frequency, evolves in response to a gate (a signal that remains active as long as a note is held) or a trigger (a short, one-time event). Envelopes modify a sound’s dynamics, giving it motion and expression.

When you trigger a note on your keyboard or punch in some notes for your melodies or percussion, you’re using an envelope to shape the personality of a sound. If the envelope modulates the amplitude (e.g., volume, gain), it defines how it starts and ends over time.

 

There are two main types of envelopes:

AD Envelope (Attack-Decay):

This more straightforward envelope consists of just two stages:

  • Attack: The time it takes for the sound to rise from silence to its peak level after being triggered.
  • Decay: The time it takes for the sound to fade from the peak level to silence after the attack phase is completed.

It is commonly used for short, percussive sounds or when simplicity is needed, as the sound always returns to zero regardless of how long the gate is held.

Since you don’t need to hold a key down for the envelope to work, a simple tap will do, and this is why we often use this one for percussion.

 

From The Wolfsound webpage

 

Rampage (Befaco)

This module is similar to another module named Maths. It is a double AD module, meaning that one trigger can trigger two envelopes at once or be used as a multi-stage envelope (see below) where the end of the first envelope triggers a second one. It can also trigger one another into a feedback loop, a technique named Krell patching.

This highly versatile module also has speed adjustment for envelope movement, from slow to fast, once again valuable for creating textures and movement.

ADSR Envelope (Attack-Decay-Sustain-Release):

 

A more versatile and detailed envelope with four stages, often seen in synths. This one requires a gate to operate because it’s following the time of the gate itself. If the envelope’s settings are shorter than the gate, it will shift to the release stage.

  • Attack: Time to rise from silence to the peak level when the gate is activated.
  • Decay: Time to fall from the peak level to the sustain level.
  • Sustain: A constant level is maintained as long as the gate is active (note is held).
  • Release: Time to fade from the sustain level back to silence after the gate is deactivated (note is released).

 

This type is ideal for shaping sustained or evolving sounds like pads or leads, allowing for more dynamic control. It can also be used with percussion but must be longer than shorter sounds. Cymbals and gongs are good examples.

 

ADSR explained (Native Instruments)

Ableton’s Envelope MIDI is a simple modulator you can map to anything in your project. It also has different parameter adjustments for tweaking it in detail.

Envelope Reactivity:

 

  • When a gate signal is applied, the envelope begins shaping the sound according to its defined stages (AD or ADSR) and reacts dynamically depending on how long the gate remains active.
  • The envelope completes its cycle regardless of the input length for a trigger signal, making it suitable for one-shot sounds like drum hits or effects.

 

Envelopes are fundamental tools in sound design because of their reactivity. They enable precise control over the evolution of a sound’s character over time.

 

A function and an envelope share similarities in that both are time-based modulators, but they differ in flexibility and application:

 

Envelopes:

  • Typically, predefined stages (e.g., ADSR or AD) control how a parameter evolves in response to a gate or trigger.
  • Envelopes are tied to musical events like note on/off signals and are specifically designed to shape sound characteristics (amplitude, filter cutoff, pitch, etc.).
  • They repeat their behaviour consistently when triggered.

 

Functions:

  • Functions are more generalized and programmable time-based modulators that perform various tasks beyond standard envelopes.
  • A function can trigger a single event (like an envelope) and include custom curves, loops, or conditional behaviours (e.g., cycling, repeating with variations, or modulating multiple parameters).
  • Unlike envelopes, functions may not rely on a gate or trigger. They can operate freely, following internal timing or external synchronization.

 

In essence, envelopes are a subset of functions purpose-built to shape sound, while functions are more flexible and allow broader modulation possibilities.

 

What Is a Multi-Stage Envelope (Chained Envelopes)?

 

A multi-stage envelope extends the traditional envelope concept by adding additional stages, creating a more complex and customizable modulation shape. It consists of multiple chained segments with their curve, duration, and target values, allowing for intricate and evolving modulations beyond the simple ADSR model.

One thing I like in the modular world is having multiple envelope modules with an EOC (end-of-cycle), where when one ends, you can have another one starting. If you have 3-4 envelopes, they can all have different settings, and the modulation will end up being like a function because it is more programming than static and repetitive.

The best application for this is for complex fluctuating modulations. Background design, textures and drones are good examples here.

 

Key Features of Multi-Stage Envelopes:

 

Customizable Stages:

    • Each stage can have different time lengths, target values, and shapes (e.g., linear, exponential, logarithmic, or even user-drawn curves).

Chained Behavior:

    • The envelope moves through each stage sequentially, often in response to a single trigger or gate. It can also loop specific stages or groups of stages.

Looping and Re-triggering:

    • Certain stages or sections of the envelope can loop, creating cyclic behaviours (e.g., for LFO-like modulation or rhythmic effects).
    • Some multi-stage envelopes allow conditional behaviours, such as advancing to the next stage only when a specific condition is met.

Applications:

    • Multi-stage envelopes are perfect for creating evolving textures, rhythmic patterns, or modulating parameters over extended periods.
    • They are often used in modular synthesis and sound design software like VCV Rack, where granular control over modulation is needed.

Practical Example of a Multi-Stage Envelope:

 

Imagine a multi-stage envelope used to control filter cutoff for a pad:

  • Stage 1 (Attack): The cutoff rises slowly from low to high.
  • Stage 2 (Decay): The cutoff drops slightly to add subtle warmth.
  • Stage 3 (Sustain 1): The cutoff holds steady.
  • Stage 4 (Rise): The cutoff climbs again for a sweeping effect.
  • Stage 5 (Release): The cutoff fades out smoothly.

This setup can loop stages 2 through 4, creating a hypnotic movement in the filter.

 

Followers as Mimic Envelopes

 

An envelope follower is a tool that extracts the amplitude shape (or envelope) of an incoming audio signal and converts it into a control signal. This control signal modulates various parameters in a synthesizer, effect, or other audio processor. While it shares similarities with traditional envelopes, it differs in how it derives its modulation shape.

 

Similarities Between an Envelope and an Envelope Follower:

 

Shape Control:

  • Both create a time-based modulation shape that can control parameters such as amplitude, filter cutoff, or pitch.
  • In both cases, the “envelope” defines how a parameter evolves.
  • In many cases, envelope followers have rise-and-fall controls that are used to smooth out the shape of the read signal.

 

Dynamic Modulation:

  • Both can introduce expressiveness and movement to a sound by dynamically modulating parameters.

 

How an Envelope Follower Works:

 

This is a modulating tool you put at one point of your chain, and it will read the incoming signal. The signal read is then translated into a modulation. It usually comes with a Gain knob so you can control how much movement you want it to read.

 

Input:

  • The envelope follower analyzes an incoming audio signal and measures its amplitude (volume) over time.

 

Output:

  • It generates a control signal (CV or MIDI automation) corresponding to the input signal’s amplitude.
  • For example, a loud signal produces a high output value, while a soft signal produces a low output value.

 

Filtering:

  • To avoid overly rapid or jagged modulation, many envelope followers include smoothing or attack/release (rise/fall) controls.

 

Ableton 12.1’s new Envelope Follower has a Sidechain signal, allowing you to intercept the signal from another channel and mix it with the incoming signal, creating a more complex movement that refers to 2 independent sources.

 

 

Using an Envelope Follower to Modulate Another Sound:

 

Extracting Modulation:

    • The envelope follower “follows” the dynamics of one sound (e.g., a drum loop, vocal, or bassline) and creates a modulation signal that mirrors its amplitude shape.

 

Applying Modulation:

  • This modulation signal can be applied to another sound’s parameters, such as:
  • Filter cutoff: Make the filter of a pad “pulse” with the rhythm of a drum beat.
  • Amplitude: Shape the volume of one sound (e.g., a synth) based on the dynamics of another.
  • Pitch: Add a wobbling or dynamic pitch effect driven by the input signal.

 

Practical Example:

 

  • Imagine a drum loop being fed into an envelope follower.
  • The envelope follower generates a modulation signal based on the drum’s transients (e.g., the kick and snare peaks).
  • This signal controls the filter cutoff of a synth pad, creating a rhythmic filtering effect synchronized with the drum loop’s dynamics.

 

Creative Uses of an Envelope Follower:

 

Sidechain-Like Effects:

  • Use an envelope follower on a kick drum to duck the volume of another sound, similar to traditional sidechain compression.

 

Rhythmic Modulation:

  • Apply the rhythmic envelope of a percussive sound to non-percussive elements, such as reverb or delay levels.

 

Dynamic Layering:

  • Use an envelope follower to match the dynamics of a secondary layer (e.g., adding texture to a lead by dynamically modulating it with a vocal track).

 

Cross-Synthesis:

  • Combine the dynamics of one sound with the tonal qualities of another, creating hybrid and expressive textures.

An envelope follower is similar to a traditional envelope in providing dynamic, time-based modulation. However, while conventional envelopes are pre-programmed shapes triggered by a gate or trigger, envelope followers derive their shape directly from an audio signal. This makes them a powerful tool for dynamic, real-time modulation, enabling producers to “borrow” the amplitude shape of one sound and creatively apply it to another.

 

How I use Envelopes and these movements in electronic music

 

There are multiple insights I discovered while studying sounds, and one of them is how the sound fluctuates and modulates based on an envelope more than LFOs. For instance, deeper kicks often use envelope-based pitch shifting for multiple purposes.

 

  • A fast pitch shifting up can make a kick’s transient snappier.
  • A medium shifting down will create a downward pull, with a feeling the kick is dropping low towards your hips.

 

Both are common and have the advantage of bringing life, therefore making them more engaging. If the envelope constantly changes, it will feel more acoustic sounding. Considering that one envelope shapes the kick’s amplitude and another one, the pitch, reminded me of what the interviewed sound designer mentioned. I realized that when I use a sound, I always try to have 2 to 4 envelopes and an envelope follower. It became a “by default” macro for my channels.

 

The advantage of having multiple envelopes is you have them have 3 ariations: slow/fast/medium attack and slow/fast/medium release.

 

That realization was a 180-degree shift compared to my old approach, where I’d use multiple LFOs per channel/sound. Something about LFOs made the sounds feel more mechanical, while envelopes made the sounds more organic/human. It was also a way of ensuring that one sound would shape the characteristics of the sound of another channel. It made me stop using side-chaining compression and instead would use amplitude side-chaining. But that’s just one example because the applications are pretty vast.

 

Ideas to explore:

  • An envelope is used to open up an LFO’s amplitude. If an LFO modulation is constant, it will give more of a mechanical result. Still, if the envelope opens the amplitude, there will be this little temporary movement (think of bird singing). An envelope for exciting evolution can also alter the speed of the LFO.
  • Opening the wet-dry of an effect such as a reverb.
  • Envelopes are used to modulate the panning of a sound to make room for another. This is an excellent alternative to predictable aut0-panning and can also avoid phasing issues in some cases.
  • Using the envelope, a sound but inducing a delay can create a cleaner call and answer for your arrangements.
  • Create a MIDI channel without an instrument, but instead, add a few envelopes. The envelopes will follow your notes whenever you press keys on your keyboard, and you can then assign the envelopes to a few parameters across your project.

 

For mixing, envelopes have helped add cleanliness and clarity to songs. Side-chain compression became obsolete more than ever for me as compression alters the envelope more than an envelope will. Compression also alters the density of a sound, which is not always necessary.

You can also create a macro that captures the movement of a sound within a frequency range (e.g., everything over 4kHz, where transients are). Transient shapes can be used to make the texture for another sound.

 

The exploration is vast here, and I’d love to read your application.

 

 

 

 

 

Music Timbre Essentials

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(Photo by Ayush Kumar on Unsplash)

 

When we dive into electronic music, one concept continually shapes our audio landscape, and you might not even know what it is: timbre.

Often described as the “color” or “tone quality” of sound, timbre is the characteristic that distinguishes one instrument or sound source from another, even when they’re playing the same pitch at the same volume. In this article, we will approach what I have learned about timbre in electronic music, focusing on how synthesizers and envelope design play pivotal roles in its creation.

Why is it important to understand what Timbre is about?

Well, if you’re interested in sound design, this should be your entrance to that world. If you know how it works, then you’ll have an understanding of how sounds are made. This means you can then extrapolate your imagination’s bleeps into real-life bloops.

Pigment from Arturia

Understanding Timbre

 

At its core, timbre is on a multi-axis, covering the aspects of sound. It has various factors such as harmonics, dynamics,  overtones, attack, decay, sustain, and release. These elements collectively shape the fingerprint of a sound, allowing us to discern between a piano, a trumpet, or a synthesizer.

To give you an example, you can play the same C2 on all those instruments, but your ear would be able to identify both the notes as well as what are the instruments. That is because the ear understands timbre’s multiple elements as unique.

In detail, those elements that will determine a sound’s color would be:

  • It’s the head. The very beginning of a sound will contain dynamic information that will let you understand what it is. For example, a drum and a piano are both percussive instruments but sound completely different.
  • Spectral profile. The way a sound is composed will be a collection of different tones, harmonics, and overtones. That also involves noise and inharmonicity. The last point, also known as noise, defines a certain amount of non-linear components, that are random and don’t follow a precise pattern.
  • Dynamics. This is how the sound changes over time. Of course, this is related to the envelope of that sound (ADSR).

Synthesis and Timbre

 

In early 2024, I decided to join the Synthesis class of Sarah Belle Reid. I was a bit doubtful at first because since I started making music, in the early 90’s, I’ve learned everything by myself and continue learning every day as well. Being under the impression that you can have access to all knowledge gives you a lot of drive but also creates a blindsight where you also have information you didn’t know you don’t know.

These are some of the things people consult me a lot for: lack of vocabulary, lack of understanding of concepts that are badly explained online and being pointed at what a specific sound, sounds like.

Back to Reid’s class. It starts with the basic knowledge of sound itself and goes through each element related to sound, then proceeds with a demonstration. Seeing, hearing, and being explained these concepts, helps being able to perceive sound from a very technical point of view. It’s one thing to understand it but it’s another thing to have vocabulary.

Timbre was one of the most important points of the class for me. It’s not with a simple blog post that I can go through all the main elements regarding timbre but I’d point out that the aha moment was to review how I use a spectrogram.

Seeing the sound from that angle helped me understand what timbre is about. It’s a concept that felt easy to read about but not necessarily easy to grasp.

 

Here are my 2 tips:

  1. Check the frequency response of the beginning of a sound’s information.
  2. Observe how the sound fades out and how the frequencies shape slowly.

Knowing that the beginning shapes an important part of your sound, this is a direct inspiration on how to use your ADSR envelope to shape or alter the shape of sounds you have. The amplitude of your sound can be shaped by a first envelope and a second one may shape filtering or other elements.

 

As for creating the timbre of a sound, you’ll have to combine multiple oscillators, noise, and modulations to mimic the spectral content.

 

Let’s go deeper into the envelope and content synthesis.

Envelope Design and Dynamic Techniques

 

At the heart of timbral manipulation lies envelope design—an important point of sound shaping in electronic music. You might use it with compression but it is also there for design. Envelopes lead the evolution of a sound over time, dictating its amplitude, frequency, and spectral content. Understanding envelope parameters, particularly attack, decay, sustain, and release (ADSR), is crucial for crafting dynamic and expressive sounds.

 

Attack: The onset of a sound, characterized by its initial transient, sets the stage for our auditory perception. A sharp attack imbues a sound with immediacy and presence, while a gradual attack imparts a softer, more ethereal quality.

Decay: Following the attack, the decay phase determines how quickly the sound’s intensity diminishes. A longer decay sustains the sound, while a shorter decay yields a percussive or plucked character.

Sustain: Once the decay phase concludes, the sustain segment maintains a constant amplitude until the sound is released. Adjusting the sustain level allows for sustained or staccato articulations.

Release: As the sound fades into silence, the release phase governs the duration of its decay. A shorter release yields a crisp, abrupt ending, while a longer release imparts a lingering decay.

Sounds of the real world or from instruments are rarely static. They often are never the same thing when played a few times, but they’ll be changing a bit too on different aspects: spectral variation, amplitude modulation, pitch. In the modular world, the use of LFOs and envelopes is handy to modify those aspects. You will want to use them to have slight variations.

The soft synth Pigments is very well made in that aspect where it will have a lot of different modulations possible which can then be routed to a lot of different parameters.

Dynamic Use and Filtering

 

In addition to envelope design, dynamic use, and filtering contribute significantly to timbral variation. Dynamic modulation techniques, such as velocity sensitivity and aftertouch, introduce expressive nuances to performances. Meanwhile, filtering—via low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or notch filters—shapes the spectral content of a sound, emphasizing or attenuating specific frequencies to sculpt its timbre further.

A good way to push the filtering is to use colored filters such as MS20 emulation or vactrol. To understand LPG (Low Pass Gate) is also another option.

 

 

Ever since I got myself a Freak Module from Vult, it brought my sound elsewhere. It has multiple filter emulation, some saturation, and a duplex mode where you can have chained filters or different filters in stereo mode. It’s pretty powerful.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving world of electronic music, timbre is something to understand if you want to define your sound and personal signature. By understanding the power of synthesizers, mastering envelope design, and employing dynamic techniques and filtering, musicians and producers alike can unlock new creative possibilities. Through this article, we’ve partly covered into the heart of timbral exploration in electronic music, uncovering the intricate interplay between synthesis, envelope design, dynamics, and filtering.  With this knowledge, may you define on your sound design skills, sculpting timbral tones that redefine who you are. Continue searching for more details and let me know if you have questions.

Miniature Songs Concept

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Sometimes I find really lovely videos with production techniques that I love and after practicing it, I thought I’d share it with you so you can benefit from this finding. In this case, it’s about the concept of miniatures and also how this pairs with some sound design principles I’ve been applying. Recently I joined Sarah Belle Reid’s Sound and Synthesis program which turned out to be insightful. Once I started diving into sound design and its mechanics, I not only started understanding sound’s DNA from a different angle but also in the context of a song.

 

 

What are miniatures?

I was recently browsing YouTube when I found this video that got me excited. Miniature is a step back from making songs and has the perspective of using a sound in a tiny bubble concept. Think of it as a 10-second to 1-minute idea. Nothing more. It’s not about trying to cram in as many elements as possible but more of taking one sound and see how to you can pull out the most from it.

When I teach music production, there is more exercise that I like to suggest to students which is to take a very basic sound (sample) and to turn it into a “main idea.”

To do so, I’d suggest picking first a random sound, preferably something you consider boring, and then playing it repeatedly to find a pattern from it. Change the pitch perhaps, but sometimes, leaving it to its original pitch will be enough. See how you can make a phrase from it and make a song (1-2min) from that alone. Sometimes I see an eyebrow being raised in doubt but then I explain that any sound, on its own, can be a song.

For example, John Cage made a song for hand clapping:

 

So back to miniatures.

Think of tiny ideas that work, ideally with 1 to 2 sounds. Watch the video below:

 

The clickbait title, at first, had me roll my eyes but then I checked it to find something that was pretty fun. To summarize it, he suggests that you write down ideas on a card, which will create a little challenge, as a miniature idea. Those prompts have certain criteria:

So this would be an example:

 

We often forget that songs are a collection of sounds and sounds that evolve on their own, maybe for a short lapse or during the entire song. The idea of creating miniature becomes useful because you’re creating ideas that can later be included in a song. Thinking of music production in a modular way (not modular synth) can help you work on different elements of your songs before diving into arrangements.

One of my principal sources of guilty pleasure is to find fun loops on Splice as a starting point so building my loops is valuable for making songs later.

 

Envelopes and macro envelopes

One element that we approached in sound design is how envelopes shape sounds as their shape. But when thinking of miniatures or songs, it can be useful to think of a macro envelope. What I mean here is how you have an evolution within the entire song.

One exercise Sarah gave us for a performance is to draw the shape of how your song or pattern evolves over the entire experience. It could start abruptly, then fade, and then increasingly get louder until the end. If you’re a Shaperbox user like me, you know you can use its internal envelopes to shape amplitude or filter over a long period. It becomes handy if you want slow modulation repeating.

 

If you want some Miniature ideas, I’d encourage you to watch the video up there. I got some instant inspiration for my sounds.