Using adsr, What is adsr – Rocktron Prophesy II User Manual

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Using ADSR

What is ADSR?

ADSR stands for Attack/Decay/Sustain/Release. The advanced ADSR function featured in the

Prophesy provides a powerful degree of control over any user-specified parameter while playing.

The Prophesy's ADSR function operates differently than previous ADSR circuits

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, as it utilizes

Rocktron's patent-pending pluck detection to trigger the ADSR function as you play. That is, each

time a string is plucked on the guitar, the Prophesy detects it and triggers the ADSR circuit, which

then varies the value of a specified parameter as defined by the settings configured on the ADSR

page.

To use the ADSR function, you must configure a controller assignment (as described in the

previous section) for a Prophesy parameter that you wish to control, using "ADSR" as its controller

number. Here you can also define upper and lower parameter limits which determine the range that

the ADSR function will operate over.

Once the controller assignment has been made, you can assign ADSR to one of the assignable

effect locations (Pre Effect, Post Effect 1-3), then go to the preset's ADSR page and define what

happens to the assigned parameter each time a string is plucked.

There are five parameters which determine how ADSR interacts with an assigned Prophesy

parameter. These are as follows:

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ATTACK

Determines the length of time for the assigned parameter to
reach its maximum value (or the upper limit value set by the
controller assignment, if set) once a plucked string is detected.

DECAY

Determines the length of time for the parameter value to decay
from the peak ATTACK value to the value set by the S-LVL
(Sustain Level) parameter.

S-TIME

Determines the length of time that the parameter will sustain
(remain) at the value set by the S-LVL parameter.

S-LVL

Sets the sustain level (or parameter value) at which the assigned
parameter value will be sustained for S-TIME milliseconds. This
value can be set from 0 to 127, with 0 representing the minimum
parameter value available and 127 representing the maximum
value.

R-TIME

Determines the length of time it takes for the assigned param-
eter to return to its minimum value from the value set by the S-
LVL parameter.

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Older implementations of ADSR utilized a threshold-based method of triggering the ADSR function, rather
than pluck detection. Threshold-based implementations are less effective, as many notes can be plucked
that go unnoticed by the detection circuit and never trigger the ADSR function.

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