Envelope | Acoustics, Frequency, Amplitude | Britannica (original) (raw)

envelope, in musical sound, the attack, sustain, and decay of a sound. Attack transients consist of changes occurring before the sound reaches its steady-state intensity. Sustain refers to the steady state of a sound at its maximum intensity, and decay is the rate at which it fades to silence. In the context of electronically synthesized sound, the term decay is sometimes used to refer to a drop in intensity that may occur between the attack and the sustain phase, and in such cases the time it takes for the sound to fade to silence is called the release.

Envelope, the combination of the three components of a dynamic musical tone, is an important element of timbre, the distinctive quality, or tone colour, of a sound. Every musical instrument has its characteristic attack, sustain, and decay pattern. Attack transients are very complex and difficult to characterize because of the speed with which the character of a sound changes in its first few milliseconds, and they have been the subject of research into exactly how they affect the tone quality of musical instruments.

This article was most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham.