S525 VC Envelope Generator/LFO

Product Description

 

(This module is included in the System B)

 

The S525 is a voltage controlled envelope generator and LFO that has been designed to provide advanced and useful features that are usually hard to find in a single module, be it hardware or software.

 

Manual and voltage control of Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release is provided. Individual time range switches for Long/Medium/Short for A, D and R periods is provided*. The shape of each of the three periods (A, D, R) can be smoothly morphed between exponential to linear to logarithmic.  As shown bellow:

 

          

 

Notice that you can obviously combine different shapes, so say you can Exp attack and Log decay and release and so on.

 

Individual EOA (End of Attack), EOD (End of Decay), EOS (End of Sustain) and EOR (End of Release) trigger/gate outputs are provided. Notice that these are not just triggers but also gates that will sustain until the end of the next period. For example, EOA will start at the end of attack and end at the end of decay. EOD will start at the end of decay and end at the end of sustain, and so on. Also individual LEDs are available for visual feedback that will indicate in which period the ADSR is currently in.

 

A rather unique feature RTZ (Return To Zero) is provided. Enabled by a switch, this mode will dictate what happens when the Gate In goes high while the release period hasn’t ended yet (i.e. when you press a key while note is still playing). When RTZ is OFF, the module will start a new attack but the output will pickup from it’s current voltage and continue the attack. This can be used for smooth results. When RTZ is ON, the module will start a new attack but the output will go immediately to zero voltage before it continues the attack. This is good for punchy results. The RTZ knob can be used to decide how long the RTZ function takes to return to zero voltage**.

 

The Gateless switch, when put ON makes the S525 insensitive to Gate In gate length. This means that A, D, R periods will continue their full time regardless if the Gate In went to low voltage or not. But ofcourse, if Gate In goes low and then high again, then a new attack will be triggered normally. This mode is good for producing plucky and bell sounds that don’t depend on how long or how short the musician kept pressing on the key.

 

The LFO switch lets the S525 retrigger itself once the release period has ended. The gate length used is the latest length it received from Gate In. This length with the release time is what dictates the LFO speed. Note that RTZ mode does not have any effect when LFO mode is ON, because the module will never be retriggered until the release period has finished and already reached zero voltage.

 

Finally there is a Retrig In patch point. This will retrigger the S525 whenever there is a transition from low to high voltage on the patch point. Note that the retriggering only happens while the Gate In is high, even if Gateless mode is ON.

 

 

*Other hardware modules usually provide one switch for the whole module.

**Always start with RTZ knob set to minimum to avoid unexpected results. Then change from there.