The cycling envelope: Env, Run and Loop
A second envelope that can repeat: one-shot, free-running or restarting with each note.
The cycling envelope is a second envelope with its own knobs, and it can repeat. Its Rise is how long it takes to go up and Fall is how long it takes to come down. Hold is a sustain level in Env mode and a hold time in Run and Loop, and Amount is how strongly it reaches every destination. The Mode button chooses between Env, Run and Loop.
- What the cycling envelope is and how it differs from the main envelope
- The three modes: Env, Run and Loop
- What Rise, Fall, Hold and Amount do
- Bending the curves with Shift
The steps6 steps
- This sound has the cycling envelope connected to the filter and set to Run. Hold a note: the filter opens and closes on its own, over and over.
Stuck?
Hold a key.
- Turn Rise and Fall while a note plays. Rise is the way up, Fall is the way down. Together they set the speed and the shape of each cycle.
Stuck?
Move both knobs a couple of times each.
- Press Mode once: Loop. It still cycles, but now every new key restarts it from the beginning, so the movement lines up with your playing.
Stuck?
Press the Mode button in the cycling envelope section.
- Press Mode again: Env. Now it runs once per note and does not repeat. The Hold knob is a sustain level in this mode: turn it and listen.
Stuck?
Press Mode, then turn Hold/Sustain.
- Bend the curve: hold Shift and turn Rise. The screen says LINEAR in the middle. Turn one way for a curve that starts fast and eases off (logarithmic), the other way for a curve that starts slow and speeds up (exponential). Try it on Fall too.
Stuck?
Latch Shift by tapping it (or hold your computer's Shift key) and turn Rise.
- Finally turn Amount. It scales how strongly the cycling envelope reaches every destination. All the way down, it has no effect.
Stuck?
The last knob in the cycling envelope section.
Env plays once per note. Run cycles on its own like an LFO with a shape you design. Loop cycles but restarts with every key. Amount scales it everywhere, and it only does anything where the matrix connects it.
On the real MicroFreak
In Env mode the envelope is triggered by the keyboard, sequencer or an external gate: it rises, holds while the key is down, then falls when you let go, with Hold/Sustain setting the level of the hold stage. In Run it retriggers itself forever, and only a MIDI Start resets it; Hold/Sustain is a hold time. In Loop it behaves like Run but restarts on every trigger from the keys, sequencer or arp. Shift plus Rise or Fall bends that curve between logarithmic and exponential, with a linear dead zone in the middle. The shape settings cannot be assigned or recorded.
Questions2
Is the cycling envelope a second LFO?
In Run or Loop mode it can act like one, with a shape you design: a fast rise and slow fall gives a falling ramp. It also works as a normal one-shot envelope in Env mode.
Why does it do nothing on my sound?
Because Amount is zero, or nothing in the matrix is connected to the CycEnv row. Check both.