How to Use C700: ADSR Envelope

C700 Sampler Right Side

Now, at last, the ADSR volume envelope settings! If you have used envelopes before, you will feel relatively comfortable in this section already, but as you can see in the interface, a fifth slider is available ("SR1" is the additional one, which we'll cover last), making the ADSR feature a bit quirky in comparison to usual. Careful use of these features can lead to some very expressive sounds.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of an ADSR envelope in music, you can read in detail about it here. In brief, an envelope affects how something sounds over time (in this case volume) using four data points named Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release:

  • The Attack value sets how long until full volume is reached when you start playing a note; a "fade-in".
  • Decay sets how quickly the note gets quieter after full volume has been reached.
  • Sustain sets the volume level you're decaying to. This level will then be held until the note is let go.
  • Release sets how long of a tapering off to zero you want after the note is let go; a "fade-out".

We'll talk more about these as we go over how they work on the SNES.

AR (Attack)

The Attack value determines how quickly notes will reach their full volume – by default (15), this is immediate. Lowering this slider will (counterintuitively) increase the attack time, meaning the volume will swell up from zero at a certain rate. At the lowest value of 0, the swell will take the longest amount of time to complete. At high values like 13 or 14, full volume will be reached quite quickly.

Controllable via MIDI CC#73 (AR).

EXAMPLE: AR value at minimum (longest attack time), gradually raising to maximum:

DR (Decay) and SL (Sustain)

After the Attack envelope has completed its task of reaching full volume, the Decay value determines how quickly notes will fade their volume – and the Sustain value determines what volume to sustain after the fade. By default, with both these sliders at their maximum value of 7, Decay occurs immediately and Sustain remains at full volume.

Lowering the DR slider increases the amount of time it takes to fade the volume down to the level chosen in the SL slider. Even the minimum value of 0 is fairly quick at less than a second long. Note that the DR slider will have no effect if the SL slider is set to maximum (7, which is default), since there is no lower volume to fade to.

Lowering the SL slider lowers the sustain volume, or the volume level at which you want the note to sustain after the Decay envelope has completed its fade-out task. The lower the value set for SL, the lower the sustain volume. Note however that the lowest value, 0, doesn't reduce the sound to a volume of zero. It still sustains at a low volume.

DR is controllable via MIDI CC#75 (DR), and SL is controllable via MIDI CC#80 (SL).

EXAMPLE: DR slider being raised from minimum (longest decay time) to maximum, with SL set to minimum:

EXAMPLE: SL slider being raised from minimum (lowest sustain volume) to maximum, with DR set to minimum:

SR2 (Release)

Going out-of-order for a moment, let's cover the rightmost slider first. This is a traditional Release envelope setting, which controls the fade-out time after a note finishes (i.e. releases, is let go). Lowering the SR2 slider will increase Release time, meaning that the lower you set SR2, the longer "tail" you will hear after your notes. By default, the maximum value of 31 means that the note simply cuts off immediately – a Release time of zero. Conversely, lowering this slider all the way causes notes to keep sounding perpetually!

SR2 is a potentially hazardous effect towards the 8-polyphony limit, as release tails do count towards polyphony. A quick sequence of short notes can easily cause polyphony cuts if SR2 is utilized. Enabling Mono mode is one way to avoid this, but this may affect the sound too harshly if the reverb-like effect of long Release envelopes is desired. Keep an eye on the MIDI channel polyphony indicators at the top of the VST. Also consider changing the VoiceAlloc global setting to SameCh, meaning notes in the same channel will be cut for polyphony reasons before any other notes.

There is also a tickbox for "Enable Release", which is on by default. Unchecking this box disables the Release envelope. Surprisingly, there is no MIDI CC which controls this specifically; however, SR2 is controllable via MIDI CC#72 (SR2), and could effectively be disabled by setting the maximum value (127) for the CC.

EXAMPLE: SR2 being slowly lowered, increasing release time:

SR1 (The Other Decay)

If you thought the Decay and Sustain portions of the envelope were rather underwhelming, you're correct, and that's because the system is able to make up for it with this extremely useful slider. SR1 controls how quickly notes fade to zero volume, and if any value besides the default (0) is set, a held note will eventually fade out.

You can think of this feature as a "master note length" slider. Near its maximum value of 31, notes will become short little plucks. At medium and low values, notes will still be several seconds long, but they will slowly taper off to zero volume. Notes can still be cut before this time if desired - only SR2 (Release) affects what happens after notes conclude.

Use of SR1 in conjunction with DR/SL allows for a healthy amount of nuance in SNES volume envelopes. I recommend exploring this feature!

Controllable via MIDI CC#82 (SR1).

EXAMPLE: SR1 being raised, decreasing the amount of time it takes to fade to zero: