GAIA Exploring Sound (PDF) - Roland Corporation Australia

What’s Wrong With This Sound?
To put it a little better; what’s wrong with this trumpet? Here are a
few steps to explain the thinking involved and some methods to
improve the sound.
1. From the early part of this lesson you would probably guess
that the problem has something to do with the Envelope. In
particular, the Attack of the sound is all wrong. It sounds like
we are hitting the trumpet, but it should sound like we are
blowing into the mouthpiece.
2. So experiment with the Attack slider. Of course, it is very easy
to raise the slider too much, making the sound even less like a
trumpet. For now, try an Attack level of around 3. Does it
sound like a “puff?” Like blowing into the mouthpiece?
3. Now what’s wrong with this trumpet? Logically, the trumpet is
an acoustic instrument. You blow in the mouth piece and the
air travels through the body of the trumpet and out to our ears.
So it would seem very unlikely that the sound could possibly
stop instantly. Experiment with the Release control until it
sounds natural to your ears. Perhaps you could set the
Release to about 8.
4. What’s wrong with the trumpet now? This is where the
remaining two controls can be very useful. If you have ever
tried to play a brass instrument you will know that the hardest
part is getting the sound started. After that it is relatively easy
to maintain the note. So how do we recreate this extra effort at
the beginning of the note? How do we re-create a puffing
effect?
5. Look again at our Figure 5.6 Envelope Shape
envelope shape in Figure
5.6. Notice that the
greatest level happens at
the beginning, but then
fades to a lower level.
Does this suggest extra
effort at the beginning of
the note? How did we get
that shape?
6. So try setting the Sustain to 90, and the Decay to around 20.
Now the sound is much more like a trumpet. Indeed, if you
were to buy an electronic organ back in the early 1960s which
offered a trumpet sound, this is exactly what you would have
heard.
7. Take particular note of the Sustain level. If we had left it set at
it’s maximum then the Decay would have had no effect at all.
The Decay and Sustain controls often work hand in hand like
this.
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