Chapter 5
Envelope & LFO
The quick ADSR and the LFO: movement without diving into operators.
In this chapter · 3
The quick envelope (ENV)
Most of the time you want to change how a sound starts and stops, not rebuild six operator envelopes. The quick envelope gives you a familiar attack, decay, sustain and release on the four knobs, with each value drawn as a bar of blocks. It is off by default: the ENV button is its on/off switch as well as its page.
- Press ENV. Its LED lights: the envelope is on and its page is open.
- Turn KNOB 1–KNOB 4 to set attack, decay, sustain and release.
- Press ENV again to switch the envelope off.
Attack
How quickly the sound reaches full volume. 0% is instant; 100% is a slow fade in.
KNOB 1Range 0–100%
Key combinations
- ENV
- Switches the quick envelope on and opens it, or switches it off.
From the community
M-VAVE FM-1 Firmware (V09) Feature Overview & Upgrade Installation Tutorial
M-VAVE
Official walkthrough of installing firmware with the M-UPGRADE desktop tool (shown with V09).
The LFO
The LFO is a slow oscillator that adds movement. It has two destinations, each with its own depth: PMD (pitch modulation depth) for vibrato, and AMD (amplitude modulation depth) for tremolo or, on modulators, a wah-like sweep.
Wave
The LFO’s shape.
KNOB 1Range Triangle, Saw Down, Saw Up, Square, Sine, Sample & Hold
Wave shapes
| Wave | Sounds like |
|---|---|
| Triangle | Smooth, even vibrato |
| Saw Down | A drop, then a rise back — repeated |
| Saw Up | A rise, then a drop back — repeated |
| Square | Jumps between two values, like a trill |
| Sine | The smoothest movement |
| Sample & Hold | A new random value each cycle |
Key combinations
- LFO
- Opens the LFO pages, or goes back home from them.
From the community
M-Vave FM-1 Guide, Part 5 | LFO, Fixed Frequency Mode and Rate Scaling
MiyafujiP
Part 5: LFO, fixed-frequency operators and rate scaling.
LFO delay, sensitivity and sync
Page 2 of the LFO holds the settings that make modulation feel played rather than mechanical. Delay waits before the LFO starts, which gives the delayed vibrato of a singer or a string player. Pitch Sens scales how far PMD can bend the pitch.
Delay
How long after the note starts the LFO kicks in.
KNOB 1Range 0–99