Mini V3 envelopes question

[MrMuzzi]

Hi,
I have recently noted what for me looks like a weird behaviour in the contour envelope
that I don't find on other emulations like the Monark or the official Minimoog for iPad:

when playing repeatedly and fast enough the same note, the contour envelope seems to retrigger from a higher value than single isolated notes. More in detail:

- take the Default patch and make sure everything in the advanced panel is disabled, legato is on, decay on
- set filter all the way down and some resonance, put the contour halfway and so its decay, no sustain, do the same with the volume envelope
- play the same note at different speeds

It seems that engaging the decay function (which enables the release stage on the envelopes) makes each new note envelope to add to the fading previous one, in other words the new one (envelope) is like "transposed" up and so the higher point the filter reaches before decaying to the sustain level.

I hope someone can recreate it and tell me if I am missing something.

edit: I have attached a preset to simplify!

Thanks.

[MrMuzzi]

At least it would help if anyone experienced the same or it is just me!

[groumpf]

I have the same behavior. You'r not alone !

[chk071]

I think that's normal for the Mini. It happens in other emulations as well, e.g. Monark and Softube's Model 72.

I also read the technical reason for it once, but, as it is, I have a terrible memory.

[chk071]

Ah, found it in Monark's manual:

The envelopes always continue from their current internal state. So, if you retrigger the envelope during a long release they do not jump to an initial value to start off the attack phase but continue smoothly from the current state. This envelope implementation in MONARK comes
with an interesting side effect relevant to playing that somewhat makes up for the lack of responsiveness to velocity sensitivity: With a short attack and long release times MONARK's envelopes will keep building on top of themselves and actually keep rising. So notes played
quickly in succession get more and more accentuated. You can either increase the attack or
decrease the release time to avoid this behavior.

It happens in other analog synths as well. The Prophet-5 e.g.

[groumpf]

Thank you for the information. I'm wondering if this behavior is really used by musicians.

[chk071]

Thank you for the information. I'm wondering if this behavior is really used by musicians.

If I had to guess then I would say it's some technical property of the design, not something which was deliberately implemented. Like the loss of volume when you raise the resonance in a Moog ladder filter.

[Tj Shredder]

I'm wondering if this behavior is really used by musicians.

Of course it is. Any musician would use any behavior that adds to an instruments expressivity… In fact those who don’t use it are just people who press keys… I am exaggerating, at least those miss an opportunity of expression… Its about how well do you know your instrument… In times of an overwhelming amount of synth plugins this is rare…