Chapter 1T - Introduct ion to sound synthesis 1T

As shown in f igure 1.24, an envelope that wil l be app lied by a computer is

usually bu ilt using a series of connected line segments . These segments are
imp lemented as sequences of numbers (sample values) in exactly th e same way
t hat they are for digiti zed sounds.

To app ly an envelope to a raw wavefo rm (that is to say, a wave that has con-
stant ampli t ude), we iterat ively mult iply, poi nt by poi nt, th e sample values for
t he envelope w ith those of t he sound itself. The values of an envelope wi ll
norma lly vary betwee n O and 1. The envelo pe depicted in the f igure begi ns and
ends wi t h the value 0, and reaches 1 at the end of its attack; the values of all
of it s othe r samples fall between O and 1. If we mult iply, on e by one, t his series
of values w ith the sample values contai ned in t he waveform (which, remember,
fa ll betwee n - 1 and 1), we scale th e ampl itude of the waveform by the shape
of the envelope. At t he begi nning of th e note, for example, t he amp lit ude of
t he waveform wil l be scaled to O (t he dig ital equivalent of silence), because t he
first value of t he envelope is 0, and any number multi plied by O is 0 . As the
sample values in the envelope increase, so does the resulting prod uct, unt il the
maximum point is reached at t he end of t he attack , wh ere the envelope wil l
have a value of 1, and wi ll the refore have no eff ect on the correspond ing value
in the wavefo rm, since any number multiplied by 1 is equal to itself . Cont inuing
wit h the rest of th e envelop e, wav efo rm samples wil l always be scaled by num-
bers t hat lie between O and 1, which means t hat t he waveform's ampl itude wi ll
always occupy some positi on between silence (0) and maximum amp litude (1).
Finally, at th e end of the envelope 's release, th e waveform samples, mu lti plied
by 0, wi ll fall silent once again .

. .. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. ... .. . . . ... .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .
INTERACTIVE EXAMPLE 1F • LINEAR ENVELOPES

...... ........... ...... ....................... ....... .....

The diff erent phases of the ADSR envelope shown in f igure 1.24 are all linear :
each is rep resented by a straig ht-line segment, and th ese segments are jo ined
at d iscreet poi nts to fo rm the envelope. An impo rtant characteristic of linear
segments is t hat increases (or decreases) between sample values are constant
for an ent ire segment, and because of thi s, an ent ire segment can be specified
using o nly two po ints.
Often, however, using such a simplistic representati on to model the evolut ion
of sound does not permit us to fashio n the envelope accurately enoug h, and
fo r t his reaso n, we wi ll somet imes resort to segmen ts that have expo nentia l
or logarithm ic shapes.

Let's see wha t th ese two terms mean :

Exponential growth is characterized by steady growth in the change s made

to sample values, and t herefo re takes the fo rm of a curve t hat rises ever mo re
steeply as it approaches its final point (as in f igure 1.25).
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