How to shorten tone duration (newbie question)

[Joymaker]

I have a Roland XP-30 keyboard, and I'm just getting started learning how to edit sounds on it. I found a sound I like, but I would like to modify it in the following way: make it so the sound doesn't linger so long after I release the key. I'm reading the manual on editing sounds, but I'm having a hard time figuring out which parameter I want. Looks like TVF Envelope it might be the right one, but that has to do specifically with filtering. Is there a plain old Volume Envelope somewhere out there? Or does TVF serve that purpose?

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Looking at page 40 of the manual, "TVF" means "Time Variant Filter," so I don't think that's what you want. "TVA" means "Time Variant Amplifier." I'd say you want the TVA Envelope (page 82).

 

[Fred Coulter]

I'm an old fogie. I was looking for a VCA and an EG.

 

[Ted Nicoson]

As SeaGtGruff has stated, the TVA settings are at the bottom of the right hand column of Page 82 of the manual. For decades, since the days of the earliest analog synths, these were known as the ADSR settings: Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release. I am not only surprised, but appalled that Roland has chosen to abandon this time proven terminology. Many of the early synths (including the Rolands) even had the ADSR diagram stenciled on the panel, with arrows from the four control knobs pointing to the wave element that each knob controlled. The "Attack" of an instrument's sound wave gives us about 90% of our ability to identify one instrument from another. If you replace just the Attack portion of a violin sound with a piano attack, most people will identify it as some type of a piano, and vice versa. Hammered instruments (piano, harpsichord, etc) and plucked instruments (guitar, bass, etc) have a very steep (fast) rise time on the Attack, while bowed and most wind instruments have a more gentle Attack rise time. If you lengthen the Attack time of a piano sound, it will tend to take on the "swell" of a strings instrument. In the diagram on Page 82, T1 is the Attack, T2 is the Decay, T3 is the Sustain, and T4 is the Release. Do not confuse the T3 Sustain with the action of a "sustain" pedal. They are two entirely different things. Many modern day middle to low-end keyboards only provide for adjustment of the Attack and Release and ignore the Decay and Sustain settings. The setting you are interested in is the T4 Release. As a matter of fact, that is what "sustain" pedals do. They extend the T4 Release time. If you have a sound with too much carry over after the key is released, you need to shorten up the T4 Release time. Some keyboards allow settings of plus or minus 127 on these, but most just allow settings of plus or minus 64. However, once the Release time goes negative, it very quickly reaches a point where any further negative has no appreciable effect on the sound, so your ability to fix this may be somewhat limited.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

Yeah, what's "TVA" make you think of? It makes me think of "Tennessee Valley Authority," not "Time Variant Amplifier." Even Yamaha's terms are a bit easier to grasp:

AEG = Amplitude Envelope Generator (traditional ADSR)
PEG = Pitch Envelope Generator
FEG = Filter Envelope Generator