User Guide

20
CHAPTER 4
Introduction
THE AMPLIFIER ENVE-
LOPE
Long-term exposure to this sound
will definitely grate on your nerves,
so let’s get started with changing
it into a signal you might enjoy
hearing, beginning with the vol-
ume characteristics. Locate the
section labeled AMPLIFIER at the
bottom right of the control feature
panel of the Virus. Here you can
see five pots labeled ATTAC K ,
DECAY , SUSTAIN , TIME and RELEASE ,
respectively.
These controls will help you to dial
in volume characteristics called an
amplifier envelope and put an end
to the nerve-racking drone that
may remind you of one of those
cheesy organs that you hear in ‘60s
B-movie sound tracks.
Rotate the ATTAC K pot while you
repeatedly engage a key to hear
the note. The further you turn the
pot up, the longer it takes for the
sound to achieve maximum vol-
ume after the start of the note. So
you can say ATTAC K controls the
initial volume swell of the sound.
Presumably the ATTAC K pot was
set to a random position before
you made any adjustments. Never-
theless the volume automatically
increased to the maximum level
before you started rotating the
pot. The reason for this is that an
ATTAC K value of 0 is saved in the
sound program - START - and this
value remains valid until you
determine a new value by adjust-
ing the position of the pot, even if
you turn it ever so slightly.
Take a look at the display of the
Virus to gain an impression of the
difference between these two val-
ues. It shows two numeric values
when you dial a pot: at the left you
can see the value stored in the
sound program and at the right,