Dave Smith Instruments SYNTHESIZERS

Nah, I already measured, and the Pulse's attack speed is about 2x the 
evolver's. The shape of the envelope as a whole also affects punch, 
no question. I can also get some nice bass out of the evolver (with a 
lot of work), check out my 'basic bouncy bass' MP3 at evo's home. But 
it's just not something that comes natural to the evolver, and I 
think that's due to the evolver's attack speed as well as its 
envelope shapes. If we were given more choices for envelope shapes 
(better than a kludge involving the 3rd envelope, which is lame 
because then it can't be used for other purposes requiring a 
longer/shorter decay) as well as quicker attack times, the evo could 
thump with the best of them with a lot less effort. 

> My gut feeling is that is it the exponential decay shape, not the
> attack time that is preventing those really zappy basses. I have got
> very close to the sound I like (and could normally get easily) by
> using envelope 3 in conjunction with the filter envelope to add an
> extra "oomph" at the start of a filter blip. The two envelopes
> together make a pretty punchy sound although, I admit, not "Pulse
> Punchy".... ;-)
> 
> Other things that seem to affect punchiness are the keyboard 
tracking
> of the filter (set this quite low) and the relationship of decay 
time
> and sustain level - normally my filter envelope would have a zero
> sustain but this just kills the sound too much because of the decay
> shape. Am I making sense? Anyway, the third envelope is the key to 
me
> - with the Evolver there's a way of doing "everything" - you just 
have
> to figure it out <g>