Ableton/Live/UG/31 Instrument Reference/09 Operator/04 Envelopes
- Seven envelopes: one per oscillator, plus filter, pitch and LFO. All can loop; filter and pitch envelopes have adjustable slopes.
- Oscillator envelopes have three rates and three levels: from Initial (often -inf dB) at the attack rate to Peak, at the decay rate to Sustain, and after note-off at the release rate back to silence. Drag breakpoints or nudge selected ones with arrow keys. Copy shapes between oscillators from the context menu.
- Slopes (filter, pitch) — positive moves fast then slow, negative slow then fast, zero linear.
- Loop — an envelope that reaches sustain while held restarts; Loop Time sets the return. Fast loops give effects you wouldn't expect from an envelope, and are the key to endless evolving FM sounds.
- Beat — restarts after the Repeat beat time without quantizing the first note. Sync — quantizes the first repeat to the nearest 16th so repeats follow the song; acts like Beat when stopped.
- Looped envelopes restart from their current level at the attack rate, so they don't click.
- Trigger — ignores note-off; good for percussion.
- Global Time scales all rates except Beat and Sync times; Time < Key speeds envelopes for higher notes; Time < Vel per envelope.
- The pitch envelope has Destination A–D and LFO buttons with an amount, an on switch in the shell, and a Dest. B target with Amt. B.
- Pitch and filter envelopes add End, the level after release.
- Tip from the manual: a looping pitch envelope routed only to the LFO acts as a second LFO on its rate, and the LFO's own looping envelope as a third on its depth.
