On a synthesizer there are 4 main settings for the sound created; Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release. Attack determines how sharp the sound is when a key is played. For instance if the attack is high, when a key is pressed quite hard the synthesizer will react quickly and the sound will be loud and sharp. When the attack is low the time it takes for the synthesizer to play the sound back, will slow right down, and will also gradually get louder to that point. Decay is the time it takes for the note that has been played to start to fade out. The sustain then picks up and suspends the note to the equivalent of the sustain level, high being a long note, low being a short note. Release takes over and is what stops the sound all together, again equivalent to the release level, with high release it takes a while to fade out, with a low release level the sound stops suddenly.

With these settings put together it is possible to get some very interesting sounds. By playing around with them you can do things like create a sound that will take a while to reach the loudest sound with a low attack and have a short decay, sustain and release for the sound to stop almost immediately when the key is let go. You could also get a note with high attack and high sustain, decay and release, which would mean when a key would be played the note would be suspended for a very long time. All these settings together are called an Envelope Generator.

Talk about Cubase, pros and cons of neon, sample rates, the timing between when a key is played and the playback sound. add to different waveforms, resonance, vca, vco, vcf, make sure above information is correct.

Different wave forms

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