Envelopes

One of the innovative features of Omnisphere’s Envelopes is that each of them has two interfaces. There have always been two competing design philosophies: ADSR envelopes, which are fast and easy to use, and Complex envelopes, which are more powerful and flexible but typically not as fast or easy-to-use.

In Omnisphere we’ve combined both ideas into one, offering the best of both worlds. Omnisphere’s envelopes are extremely powerful and at the same time easy-to-use, regardless of the envelope style.

Envelopes are the contours that shape the sound coming from the Oscillators and the Filters—over time.

A basic ADSR-style envelope determines how quickly a sound will begin, its initial decay, at what level it sustains, and how long it will fade out after the note has been released. These different elements of the envelope are called stages. Most synthesizers have 4-stage envelopes, often called ADSR envelopes, which stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release.

Complex envelopes contain contours with more than foour stages. Complex envelopes allow a much greater degree of control in shaping the sound, and offer tremendous flexibility when shaping sounds and can be used to create rhythmic shapes.

Each Part in Omnisphere has 12 envelopes. Each can be used either as a basic 4-stage ADSR envelope, or as a Complex envelope. Each of the four Layers has a dedicated AMP (Amplitude) envelope and a dedicated FILTER envelope, and there are four MOD ENVELOPES that are common to all Layers.

ENVELOPE PRESETS

All envelopes can load Envelope Presets from the pull-down menu in the Header.

A wide variety of envelope types ranging from simple ADSRs to extremely complex ones can be loaded from this menu. You can save your own Envelope Presets, as well as copy and paste them from one envelope to the other.

AMP ENVELOPE

Each Part has four dedicated AMP (Amplitude) Envelopes, one for each Layer. These shape the overall loudness of the Layer. A dedicated Velocity knob controls the dynamic output of the AMP Envelopes based on MIDI Velocity.

FILTER ENVELOPE

Each Part also has four dedicated FILTER Envelopes, one for each Layer. These shape the Filter Cutoff for each Layer. A dedicated Velocity knob controls the dynamic output of the FILTER Envelopes based on MIDI Velocity.

MOD ENVELOPES

Modulation Envelopes are global, meaning there are a total of four Mod Envelopes available per Part. The Modulation Envelopes are monophonic, in contrast to the FILTER and AMP envelopes, which are polyphonic. The best way to think of Modulation Envelopes is as uni-polar LFOs that can have custom-defined shapes.

1, 2, 3, 4 (Modulation Envelope buttons)

Under the MODS sub-page, there are 4 small switches with which you can select any of the four Modulation Envelopes.

Instead of a dedicated VELO (Velocity) control, each of the four Modulation Envelopes has its own DEPTH control knob.