ADSR from scratch

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 05:02:34 GMT

JuanMadrid — Fri, 01 May 2026 05:02:34 GMT

Hi, this is my first post on this forum. Sorry if I am asking about something that has been commented on before.
I tried to use the ADSR envelope in plugdata, but the release stage starts after the attack and decay stages are finished, which is not what I need Because of that, I decided to build my ADSR from scratch, and is working as I want. The only thing I don´t like is that the attack, decay and release stages are linear, directly from the vline object inside my custom subpatch.
How can I add a convex attack stage, and concave decay and release stages? Within my patch, all the different stages are launched with a single vline object. If I apply some exponential law, I am applying it to every stage, and that's not correct.
Could someone help me to find documentation for an ADSR patch where I can see how it has been built?. I tried to open the ADSR object in Plugdata, but it has not been possible.

Thanks very much for your help!!

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 05:15:43 GMT

whale-av — Fri, 01 May 2026 05:15:43 GMT

@JuanMadrid Hello. You can use the [curve~] external, or if natural curves are sufficient then square the output of [vline~]......
See this thread....... https://forum.pdpatchrepo.info/topic/9819/curved-adsr-envelope/3

And yes... you cannot open that adsr object because it is not a patch. It is a compiled object like [vline~].
David.

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 18:38:06 GMT

jameslo — Fri, 01 May 2026 18:38:06 GMT

@JuanMadrid Maybe use a 2nd [vline~] to sequence the exponent? I think you might have to do something similar to adjust the transition to/from the sustain level.

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 21:37:28 GMT

porres — Fri, 01 May 2026 21:37:28 GMT

What version of PlugData do you have?

If you have the last stable version 0.9.3 this is what you have and shows you how to set the envelope for immediate release or not

A new version of ELSE and plugdata is already up as part of an experimental 0.9.4 PlugData release and things changed a bit.

So there's nothing really wrong with the object, you just didn't check the help file carefully

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 21:42:22 GMT

porres — Fri, 01 May 2026 21:42:22 GMT

this is what I have for the upcoming version, a more versatile and sophisticated time management system

I'm really sorry that I end up changing things a bit, but as long as PlugData is still at an experimental 0.x.x version I am doing this in favor of improving and enhancing the objects. When PlugData 1.0 is finally out (and I can't wait for Tim to do that), I made a pact with the devils that I should just stick to whatever bad decisions I had at the time and let it go...

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 22:11:24 GMT

porres — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:11:24 GMT

Note that the new stuff I pointed above are already part of the experimental/nightly builds of PlugData.

As for designing envelopes, I have the "Live Electronics Tutorial", an extensive tutorial and all things ELSE and Pd, which is also distributed as part of the PlugData documentation. I have an example on how to build exponential envelopes over there, see

here's a screenshot you'll find in chapter 17

I also have added something like this to the help file of [slop~]

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Fri, 01 May 2026 22:12:54 GMT

porres — Fri, 01 May 2026 22:12:54 GMT

of course [else/adsr~] is much more powerful and offers more exponential curves. I find the one pole filter solution not that great, but I haven't bothered on trying to implement something like that in Vanilla

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Sun, 03 May 2026 13:43:08 GMT

JuanMadrid — Sun, 03 May 2026 13:43:08 GMT

@porres Yes, you are right. I didn´t enter in the pd release patch to see the additional explanation. Thanks very much!

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Sun, 03 May 2026 14:26:57 GMT

JuanMadrid — Sun, 03 May 2026 14:26:57 GMT

A lot of useful information here to explore and try during the next week.
Thanks very much!
Juan

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Sun, 03 May 2026 14:56:14 GMT

porres — Sun, 03 May 2026 14:56:14 GMT

it was historically immediate release by default, but in that particular version I was trying to accommodate more features and kinda screwed up... and now it'll be back immediate release with yet more features, so I was able to find a way to accommodate things.

It's hard to add features without breaking things.

By the way. I don't think [vline~] can be considered an envelope generator at all... you can do it, but it's a lot of hassle and it's only linear and very limited. For you to be able to deal with exponential curves and all the things I provide in my envelope generator is just virtually impossible with vanilla.

Reply to ADSR from scratch on Mon, 04 May 2026 05:31:05 GMT

JuanMadrid — Mon, 04 May 2026 05:31:05 GMT

Thanks for your answer. I have actually created an ADSR just with vline. I attach the patch below ans it is working. The only problem is that is linear, and I would like to implement something similar to yiur solution with slope but now I am confused about how slop works so I need to try to unterstand hiw it works during this weeks.
And you are right, to develope the ADSR with vline was complicated foir me. I spent several hours,

Trying to understand midi keys.pd