Instrument Envelopes

Related Topics
Assembling instruments using samples


Working with Envelopes In this tutorial I will show you some aspects of the envelope settings in the instrument editor.
I’m not going to tell you how to set up envelopes for your instruments, but I will tell you what each option does.

Clicking the Instr. Envelopes tab at the bottom right of Renoise brings up the instrument editor and the associated virtual keyboard and envelope panels.

I will first explain the envelope panels.

On the left are the dynamics envelopes (volume, panning, pitch); on the right are the filter envelopes (cutoff, resonance).

To enable an envelope parameter, such as volume or cutoff, first select that parameter by clicking on its panel, then click the toggle box to “on” (represented by a tick-box - see below).

→ .

When switched on, the visible curve represents the value of this parameter over time.
Note: the envelopes are applied to the related instrument when a note is played to trigger the envelope’s start. If another note is played in the same subtrack before the envelope reaches its end, or if a note-off command is encountered, the envelope will retrigger from the beginning. Depending upon the NNA option set for the instrument, the previous played envelope will continue from its sustain point or the note will be instantly interrupted. There is also a feature called Instrument Ghosting which will not reset the envelope when a new note is triggered. This however requires a trick:remove the instrument number behind the followup notes. This last trick only works for Renoise version 1.5.1 and newer and has been a known and desired phenomenon by many oldskool FT2/IT2 trackers out there.

General settings

• 
  - Time-length of the envelope: Click and drag up or down to in/decrease the value or double click

in order to manually enter a value. The value represents the amount of ticks being used for this envelope.

• 
  - Time flip: Flips the envelope curve across its y-axis.
• 
  - Mirror flip: Mirrors the nodes across the x-axis (low values become high and vice versa).
• 
  - Humanize: Randomly change all current node-values around their current base value to achieve a more “organic” transition.
• 
  -Curve types
  • Linear represents a straight-lined graphic between start- and end-nodes.
  • Cubic represents a smoother curve as currently visible in the above envelope panels.
• 
  - Loop types
  When a loop type is chosen, a start-node and end-node appears in the curve-window, you can shift the start and end-node to the positions you want to have in your loop.
  • Forward: Loops from start to end
  • Reverse: Plays from start to end but loops from end to start once end-point has reached.
  • Ping Pong loops from start to end and back to start.
• 
  - Sustain node: When turned on, a sustain line appears in the envelope curve-window.
  The sustain line determines the value to be held from the moment the held note reaches it to the moment the note it either released (or a note-off command is detected), after which the rest of the curve will be processed. These are the only options that apply to the graphic scope curve and they do not operate if the curve is not switched on to be processed.
• 
  - Envelope presets: Every setting in both envelope panels can be stored in their own preset by clicking right mouse-button. When clicking the left mouse button, the previous stored envelope will be restored. You cannot copy amplitude/panning/pitch envelopes to filter envelopes and vice versa.

LFO

The LFO modulator (we do not refer to the Local Firearms Officer here, but the Low Frequency Oscillator).

“A Low-Frequency Oscillator is generally used for adding vibrato or tremolo or otherwise controlling an audio signal in a rhythmic manner. “Low- frequency” implies frequencies below the audio range (20 Hz — 20 kHz), i.e., frequencies low enough that they aren’t heard as a tone.”

What the LFO here in particulary does is modulate the function of the envelope. However, if selected, the LFO works independently of the envelope surve (i.e. regardless of whether the envelope curve is clicked on).

There are 4 types of oscillators:

• Sine oscillates smoothly with positive and negative curves. Incidentally, in the case of the envelopes it is not a real sine as it only modulates with the positive value.
• The Sawtooth behaves more abruptly and slides from one value to the maximum and then instantly drops to zero again.
• The Pulse just pulse rates either on or off. A sound will be heard a half of the amount of times per second and for the other half, you don’t hear it.
• The Random LFO will just pick any of the other three values at random times and you totally cannot predict the behaviour of the modulation applied to your sound.

Let’s describe an example with the Sine type:
The Sine oscillates the envelope according to the Sine wave shape. This means if you have set the Volume LFO to Sine and the frequency to 60 and the amount to 70, it will sweep the volume down and up 1 cycle per line up to a velocity of 70. The Dephase sets the angle (from 0 to 180) in degrees from which level the envelope has to start (based upon the maximum amount of 70 in the above case). The maximum level will be reached at 90 degrees so if you set your dephase at 90 degrees, your envelope will start maxed out when you hit your key, if you keep it pressed it will continue to circle its clock (well, looping between 0 and 180 degrees that is)
A frequency of 15 is cycle spanning four lines, a frequency of 30 is a two-line span cycle, a frequency of 60 is a one-line cycle, etc.

Now, in the Volume, Panning and Pitch Envelopes, you even can set a double LFO, meaning the second LFO will modulate upon the first one.

This is a good time for you to experiment with both LFOs. Pick a sample that is looped and just let it play. Set the first LFO to a low Frequency and a high amount (127), set the second LFO to a high frequency and a low amount (30).Start off with a Sine oscillator in both LFOs, then play with the values of the frequencies and then try to play with the amount values.
When you start to figure out what happens, change the oscillator types at will.

There will be some more LFO discussions in the Meta devices (and DSP tutorials).

Filters

The list contains various filter-types to choose from. I’ll sum them briefly up:

• Low Pass
  • LP 2x2 pole
  • LP 2 pole
  • LP biquad
  • LP Moog
  • LP Single
• High Pass
  • HP 2x2 pole
  • HP 2 pole
  • HP Moog
• Equaliser
  • EQ −15
  • EQ −6
  • EQ +6
  • EQ +15
  • Peaking EQ
• Distortion
  • Distortion
  • Low Distortion
  • Mid Distortion
  • High Distortion
• A Mod (Amplitude Modulation)

The Curve

A couple of key combinations mouse actions affect different behaviours of the curves inside Renoise:

Just moving one node between two others can be achieved by (left mouse and drag)

Override node-points (leftmouse and lshift while dragging) (double-click one node to remove the specific node)

Revealing node-values through tooltips (ctrl and hover above node)

Using precision mode movement for node (holding ctrl and drag with left-mouse button)

Moving the curve around (holding alt, leftmouse and drag)

Moving the curve up and down (holding ctrl, alt, leftmouse and drag)

Scaling the curve around (holding alt, rightmouse and drag)

Fine-scaling the curve around (holding ctrl, alt, rightmouse and drag)

Setting a constant level by dragging one node completely to the right, removing the others (leftmouse and lshift while dragging)

Selecting and copying specific areas from and to targets

You can select areas of certain curves for duplication by clicking on either the top or bottom ruler bar and left-clicking and dragging the desired area.
When you have selected an area, you can either hit ctrl-c to copy the area, then click the target tick or row you want to insert the data (A vertical semi-dashed line indicates the point of entry) and then hit ctrl-v to paste the copied selection. hit ctrl-p to duplicate the copied selection continuesly across the envelope to repeat the selected pattern.
It is even possible to copy contents from the instrument envelopes to the automation envelopes and vice versa:

You can of course also use the context menu to handle the copy and paste actions when right clicking upon the envelope ruler areas…

The raster or matrix represents the amount of ticks being used. The thick vertical lines represent a row and the thinner lines represent the ticks within that row. Though beware that this envelope will not run synchronous to the pattern-lines when e.g. a delay command is used to trigger a sample one or more ticks later. The white node-flag represents the sustain marker, the envelope will be played up to that point and sustains until a note-off is sent. When a loop-type is selected, the start (s) and (e) end loop-flags will appear in the envelope. Use the mouse upon the flags to left-click and hold to drag the sustain- and loop-flags.

Specific envelope controls

There are specific features applied to the Dynamics envelopes as well as to the filter envelopes:

Only the volume envelope has a fade-out slider in its sustain property panel. You can set it by clicking the arrow keys, dragging the slider, clicking and holding the mouse button upon the figure and then dragging it up or down or double clicking the value and manually entering the figure you want it to have.

The fade-out value determines how quick the volume of the instrument will fade out. This fade-out value will be processed when a note-off is being sent. It is the equivalent of a “release” value in a typical adsr envelope. The fade out is particulary handy if you want to have a certain volume curve being looped but not being played at this constant volume, or if you want to have a quicker fade-out effect for the instrument when you release your key than when you hold down your key but the instrument really needs to die out regardless of a note still being active or having sent a note-off. (A piano is a good example of where you set such value since a piano always dies out.)

Applies amplification upon the cutoff and moreover the resonantion envelopes.
Each filter-envelope type has its separate LFO and Autoamp settings.

• Attack: Attack-level of the amplification, the higher the value the less effect of amplification.
• Release: Release-time of the amplification (note-off), the higher the value, the longer the effect of amplification.
• Amount - Amount of amplification to add to the envelope, the higher the value, the more amplification.

Related Topics
Assembling instruments using samples