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In a newly created (empty) soundfont, I create an instrument. When I select it and click on the envelope editor, I see an evelope that goes from 0 to max at 0s, continues at max to 2s, and then goes to 0 and stays at zero until 4s.
What does this mean? All values (Delay, Attack, Releasem Hold, Decay, etc) are minimal (0.001s).
I add a sound sample which is 25 seconds long. It is a percussion sound, so I want to sound the complete sample whenever it is invoked, regardless how long the key is pressed. If I understand things correctly, I must set the Hold value to the length of the sample. However, the maximal value for Hold seems to be 5000 samples (18secs). So the best I can do is set Hold to max and set Release to the rest of the length.
Is this correct? Or is there a better way to sound the complete sample? -
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I think that Polyphone uses a 2 second time interval to make the sustain visible in the envelope editor.
In the example below, Attack = 1, Hold = 1, Decay = 1. Then there is a 2 second Sustain, followed by the Release.
So the full length of the envelope in the editor window will always be Attack + Hold + Decay + 2 + Release.
To have a sample sound completely, regardless of when the key is released, the only way seems to be to make the Release as long as possible (102 seconds). Even then, the decrease in volume of a 30 second sample is more than noticeable. And —worse— even though the sound has long stopped, resources will be tied up the full 102 seconds, possibly blocking other samples from sounding. -
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bottrop on -"I add a sound sample which is 25 seconds long. It is a percussion sound, so I want to sound the complete sample whenever it is invoked, regardless how long the key is pressed."
if you want to hear the full 25 seconds, you will have to keep the key pressed for 25 seconds. you are the one who is making music, not the soundfont.
regards bottrop -
You're welcome!
For singing bowls, bells, cymbals, etc you're likely to need a relatively long release time. Enter a value you'll think you need for the reverb time and try it out. If you have a MIDI-keyboard connected to your computer you can use it with Polyphone to play and test if you're satisfied with your alterations or you need to do some more tweaks. Otherwise the virtual keyboard can be quite helpfull too.
What I regularly do as well is making use of the modulation envelope. With it I can modify the envelope of the brightness of the sound. Here's an example of a bell-like sound:
amplitude (volume) envelope:
delay time = 0.001 seconds - I'll explain later why I enter here any value
attack time = 0.001 seconds - unless you want the attack to be more softly
release time = 10 seconds (to start with. It could be you'll only need 7 seconds or less or far more seconds than 10)
When the sample itself sounds sufficient to you it's usually not needed to set parameters to the hold time, decay time or sustain value. However it can be usefull to adjust them when playing the sampled bell instrument will result in a cacophonic noise, comparable with a piano play without letting go the sustain-pedal. By shaping the envelope with adjusting the hold time, decay time and sustain value you can fix this in case it occurs. If it does not help than you need to edit the sample itself with an audio editor.
Cacophony can also be prevented by adjusting the modulation envelope.
Within soundfonts you can make use of a lowpass with a slope of 12 dB. This means the sound frequency decreases 12 dB per octave. For example when I set the cutoff-frequency to be 500 Hz the frequency of 1000 Hz will be decreased with 12 dB and so on.
So let's set the cutoff-frequency to be 500 Hz. This will make your samples sound very dull, but we're not finished yet. Do you see in the parameter Mod env → filter (c)? Set it to 12000: that's the maximum value you can enter here. It means the cutoff-frequency will be increased with 12000 Hz. (You can also set negative values here to decrease the cutoff-frequency.) Now we have to modify the filter envelope:
attack time = 0.001 seconds
release time = the same as the value you've entered within the volume envelope
Remember you've set the delay time of the amplitude envelope to 0.001 seconds? It covers up the attack time of the modulation envelope: within that 0.001 seconds the cut-off frequency goes from 500 to 12500 Hz. It's a very short amount of time, though even than it can be of influence to the sound. That's why the same amount of time is set within delay of the amplitude envelope.
When using the modulation envelope with these settings makes the sound too dull you can change it by increasing the value you've set within cutoff-frequency. Try out what happens when you change it from 500 to 750 or 1000 or higher -
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