Last week, we took a detailed look at the ADSR Rack module. If you’re unfamiliar with ADSR, be sure to check it out!
This time, we’ll go over how the ADSR works in the Filter FX.
In all 3 Filters, there is an ADSR section in the middle. If you play around with these controls, you might not hear any difference in the sound. This is because you also have to select what the ADSR is actually going to affect.
On the left side, you’ll see these buttons, allowing you to enable the ADSR in a couple of different ways.
The on/off switch actually affects the entire FX module, not just the ADSR. So you’ll probably want to leave this on.
Cutoff applies the ADSR envelope to the cutoff frequency, from the bottom up. So, if you have a low pass filter with a cutoff of 500Hz and the Attack set to 1 second, you’ll basically hear a filter sweep from 0 to 500Hz over 1 second when you hit a key.
Invert will reverse this behavior, so the cutoff will apply from the top (20 kHz) down.
AMP will apply the ADSR to the amplifier - which basically affects the sound in the same way as the Rack ADSR module. Since a filter can change the sound drastically, it can be handy to experiment with the amplifier envelope here as well. Unlike the rack module, this cannot affect the sound of individual parts, however.
You can enable and disable these buttons individually, so you can apply the ADSR here to both the cutoff and amplifier.
Changing the ADSR of the cutoff can yield some pretty cool results! For example, if you set decay, sustain, & release to 0 with a low pass filter, the sweeping sound with an immediate cutoff sounds like a more controlled reverse effect.
To get a really good idea of what these controls sound like, it can be good to use a simple synth sound (like a basic sine wave) so you don’t have to deal with more complicated harmonics. The part Synth Guitar Pluck from Free Angels is a good, free candidate for auditioning filter effects as well.