emusonacid! legacy

I was wondering if somebody could explain me how the Emu handles envelopes. I understand that envelopes basically shape your waveform by controlling the amp rate (basis sound synthesis). But how should you use this when setting up your drums in the sampler (because samples are no oscillators and have a fixed length and volume)? The default of the sampler is a tight attack and a long release (no decay or sustain).
Should you setup your decay and sustain to adjust to the waveform of your beats (so they are exactly in line with your waveform) or is it not necessary ? How do those values relate to dBs ?
I also noticed that when you play the sample and keep the release to a high value the sample repeats indefinetely (just like a synth), but does this also applies to the other settings ? f.e. when I have a short attack and a strong decay on the waveform and I turn my decay all the way up to the same value of the attack, does the sampler transforms the waveform, so there is no decay on the waveform ?

I know a lot of these questions could be solved by experimentation, but I can't get to my Emu this week...
Thanks for the help....

Well lets see. Here we go.

Well first... samples can be oscillators. I use samples all the time with them looping thus creating voices like the oscillators on a synth. I am working on a tut that will explain somethings.. But as for drums I would keep things default, if at the very least take the rls 1 and turn it off. But I find that using that default release of 20 is just enough to hide missing zero crossings. The attack should be at zero and you should cut your drums as close as you can to the start of the wave form so you can get tight timing from it. The release is not that long actualy. At 20 it is hardly noticable and at values of 80 you finally get a tail... if you are looping something like a test tone.

Next...Setting up the adsr to match the wave form...Why? you already have the conture of the sampled hit so you don't need to do more unless you are going for a different sound... perhaps smaller hits or something. I have found that small changes in the % portion in the decays section to be a bit extreme. Setting a decay % at like 90 reduces the amplitude of the sample by quite a bit. So I often times don't play too much with the decays. As for the adsr and how it relates to dB... it is just a percentage of the over all level of your sample. So 100 percent has the sample at full volume.

Moving on... Yeah isn't that fun; the repeating and if you really mess up you can get it so that it gets louder and louder until your ears start bleeding. The bit about the decay being the same as the attack... Well the sampler would see that as the same I would suspect. It would play that stage of the adsr but of course you wont hear it as it is the same as the attack.

I think that is it. Have fun with it.

snh

Cheers... Thanks sampleandhold ! Makes it a lot clearer now !
Although it would be nice to find a little program that analyses a waveform and adapts its envelopes to it, so you could reshape it from there (although the Emu has its own way).
Anyway... I've learned a lot already from this forum...