In my never ending chase for percussive sounds, I started to dig into Envelope 1 to see how much punch I could get out of it. It was fine, but not as punchy as I remember from my (ex) Moog synths.
Then I remembered that the filter on the Gemini can also be modulated by Envelope 2, and to my surprise it has a different sound. Set by eye to the exact same fader settings, they sound completely different.
But set by ear to approximately the same curves, they still sound different! In my perception, Envelope 2 is tighter and quite a bit more dynamic. The peaks punch higher, the lows sit lower. I tested it out on a running arp sound (with velocity), and even the wave display shows the difference.
My conclusion at the moment is that Envelope 1 has a more vintage sound (think Stranger Things), while Envelope 2 has a more modern/punchy sound (think Moog).
In a world where no two things in a UDO synth are the same (different OSCs, different LFOs), a pair of different envelopes sure makes sense, and I’m certainly not complaining. But can anyone confirm this?
I’m glad someone remarked on these subtleties! ENV1 in binaural mode actually passes through an analog VCA which applies a scale factor, thus the envelope has full precision down to very low amplitude, (a weakness in many Instruments imo). The same is also true for ENV2 but only when applied to the VCA. When applied to the VCF ENV2 does not pass through the analog VCA but rather sums to the cutoff CV. This is also true for ENV1 in 12 voice mode to further confuse things. The analog processing (vca and filters) of the envelope will affect the curve and may subjectively make it more “vintage” sounding. Gemini allows you to sum both digital and analog envelope even more confusingly, analog scaling up to 50% then digital thereafter, to get double maximum depth. The subtle phase and frequency response of the different channels and methods helps to my mind just make everything a bit more interesting
That’s paying a high amount of attention to detail, impressive. It sure confirms I was actually hearing things, which is a relief.
Your detailed explanation much appreciated, I think I understand the whole thing. Can’t wait now to try the double env mode and see what happens. Cheers.
