About Massive X Envelopes

Liukyuk
Liukyuk Member Posts: 3 Member
in Massive X & Synths

Hi all, I'm Luca and this is my first post here. I did a fast search but did not find an answer for my questions/doubts, sorry if this has already been answered.

Playing with Massive X envelopes (with User Manual at hand) I found some unexpected behaviors:

  • In general, there's no difference between Peak and Env Level, except when using the Amp-Env for other modulation purposes, since Env Level has no effect on amplitude. Correct?
  • Loop and Loop Gate work only if Sustain is 0, otherwise they seem to do nothing. Correct?
  • There's no difference between Loop and Loop Gate, they both behave as Loop Gate. Correct?
  • Reset seems to do nothing. Correct?

Thank you for your attention.

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Best Answer

  • Liukyuk
    Liukyuk Member Posts: 3 Member
    edited March 2023 Answer ✓

    Ok, I got the difference between Loop and Loop Gate.

    In both cases, in order to have the loop you have to set Sustain at 0, and the loop only includes Delay, Attack, Hold and Decay, then it restarts from Delay and so on; the loop itself never includes the release stage of the envelope for which you set the loop mode.

    The difference is what happens when you release the key

    In Loop Gate mode when you release the key the envelope stops looping and it will "play" the second hold and the release stage

    In Loop mode, when you release the key it will continue to loop even during the amp release stage.

    Hence, in order to hear the difference you need a sufficient release length of the amp envelope.

Answers

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 9,635 mod

    Hey Luca,

    You should consider the Env level like an attenuator for the envelope. For the Amp-Env it doesn't control amplitude for the VCA, you're correct.

    For the other things, I'll copy from the manual:

    1. Trigger: Selects one of four settings (Gate, OneShot, LoopGate, Loop), that determine the envelope's response to incoming MIDI notes.
    • When Gate is selected, the envelope starts and is read out until its end. If the key is released before the Sustain stage of the envelope, it will immediately jump to the Release stage.
    • With OneShot selected, the envelope is read to end, even if the key is released before the Sustain stage.
    • LoopGate creates a loop between the Attack and Decay stages.
    • Loop creates a loop from the entirety of the envelope, including the Release stage.

    You need to play around with the envelopes Attack, Decay and Hold. The best to really hear the modulation is to assign the envelope to the pitch of one of the oscillators.

    I hope that helps!

  • Liukyuk
    Liukyuk Member Posts: 3 Member

    Hi Jeremy, thank you for your answer. I know that part of the manual and I created my question because I was not able to match the actual behavior with what is found in the manual.

    In particular, I was not able to:

    * Have my Env looping without setting the sustain at 0

    * Configure an Env in Loop mode so that the loop included the release stage. Do you have a patch showing this?

    * Understand what Reset does. The manual says "Reset: When active, the envelope will restart each time a note is triggered." which is fun because this should be the one and only behaviour of any envelope. So I thought that it would have an effect only for looping envelopes. But even in that case, I was not able to spot any difference between Reset On and Reset Off.


    Thank you again for your attention


    Luca

  • Liukyuk
    Liukyuk Member Posts: 3 Member
    edited March 2023 Answer ✓

    Ok, I got the difference between Loop and Loop Gate.

    In both cases, in order to have the loop you have to set Sustain at 0, and the loop only includes Delay, Attack, Hold and Decay, then it restarts from Delay and so on; the loop itself never includes the release stage of the envelope for which you set the loop mode.

    The difference is what happens when you release the key

    In Loop Gate mode when you release the key the envelope stops looping and it will "play" the second hold and the release stage

    In Loop mode, when you release the key it will continue to loop even during the amp release stage.

    Hence, in order to hear the difference you need a sufficient release length of the amp envelope.

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 9,635 mod

    Hey Luca! Glad you found your way around it, sometimes these things are not easy to explain by just writing and are easier to find by experimenting.

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