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17-473: All voices may be shaped by 13 preset envelopes , portamento , and vibrato . It also includes a rudimentary sequence recorder, preset rhythms and chord accompaniment. The SK-1 was thus an unusually full-featured synth in the sub-US$ 100 (equivalent to $ 280 today) home keyboard market of the time. The SK-1 includes one pre-arranged piece of music, the Toy Symphony , which is played when the "Demo" button

34-448: A capacitor to store and slowly release voltage produced from hitting a key. He refined the design to remove the need to push a separate button with every keypress, with two switches on every key: one to produce the control voltage determining pitch and the other to trigger the envelope generator. The envelope generator became a standard feature of synthesizers. Following discussions with the engineer and composer Vladimir Ussachevsky ,

51-505: A delay parameter before the attack . Modern synthesizers, such as the Prophet '08 , have DADSR (delay, attack, decay, sustain, release) envelopes. The delay setting determines the length of silence between hitting a note and the attack. Some software synthesizers , such as Image-Line's 3xOSC (included with their DAW FL Studio ) have DAHDSR (delay, attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelopes. A common feature on many synthesizers

68-501: A circuit bent SK-1 heavily in the Me and You and Everyone We Know musical score. The "Realistic Concertmate" version of the SK-1 is the primary synth used in the no wave / industrial band Special Interest. It was used by notable jungle artist DJ Hype for his seminal productions, and rapper and producer Large Professor used it in his early years of beat-making. Australian band Turnstyle used

85-408: A near-immediate initial sound which gradually decreases in volume to zero. An envelope may relate to elements such as amplitude (volume), frequency (with the use of filters ) or pitch . Envelope generators , which allow users to control the different stages of a sound, are common features of synthesizers , samplers , and other electronic musical instruments . The most common envelope generator

102-529: Is also featured on the cover of the Soccer Mommy album "Collection". Composer Samuel Andreyev has written demanding parts for the SK-1 in several of his chamber compositions, including Vérifications, Iridescent Notation and Sextet in Two Parts. ADSR envelope In sound and music , an envelope describes how a sound changes over time. For example, a piano key, when struck and held, creates

119-551: Is an AD envelope (attack and decay only). This can be used to control, for example, the pitch of one oscillator, which in turn may be synchronized with another oscillator by oscillator sync . Vladimir Ussachevsky Vladimir Alexeevich Ussachevsky (November 3, 1911 in Hailar , China – January 2, 1990 in New York , New York ) was a composer, particularly known for his work in electronic music . Vladimir Ussachevsky

136-514: Is controlled with four parameters: attack , decay , sustain and release ( ADSR ). The envelope generator was created by the American engineer Robert Moog , the creator of the Moog synthesizer , in the 1960s. The composer Herbert Deutsch suggested Moog find a way to articulate his synthesizer so notes did not simply trigger on and off. Moog wired a doorbell button to the synthesizer and used

153-593: Is pressed. The Radio Shack version of the Casio SK-1 is called the Realistic Concertmate 500 . The SK line continued throughout the late 1980s, including the SK-2, SK-5, SK-8 and 8A, SK-10, SK-60, SK-100, SK-200, and SK-2100. The SK-1 has been used by a few major recording artists for its simplicity and lo-fi sound. It became very popular in the late 1990s among the circuit bending crowd after

170-748: The American Composers Alliance from 1968 to 1970 and was an advisory member of the CRI record label, which released recordings of a number of his compositions. Recordings of his music have also been released on the Capstone, d'Note, and New World labels. In 1947, following a stint with the U.S. Army Intelligence division in World War II , he joined the faculty of Columbia University , teaching there until his retirement in 1980. Together with Otto Luening , Ussachevsky founded, in 1959,

187-1089: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City . While acting as head of the Electronic Music Center Ussachevsky specified the ADSR envelope in 1965, a basic component of modern synthesizers , samplers and electronic instruments. Ussachevsky also taught and was composer-in-residence at the University of Utah . His notable students include Charles Wuorinen , Alice Shields , Ilhan Mimaroglu , Faye-Ellen Silverman , Charles L. Bestor , Ingram Marshall , Joan Tower , Wendy Carlos , Kenjiro Ezaki , Pril Smiley , Charles Dodge , Ruth Anderson , and Richard Einhorn . "VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY ELECTRONIC AND ACOUSTIC WORKS 1957–1972". New York: New World Records (80654-2), 2007. This

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204-575: The ADSR envelope, reversing the behavior of the normal ADSR envelope. During the attack phase, the modulated sound parameter fades from the maximum amplitude to zero then, during the decay phase, rises to the value specified by the sustain parameter. After the key has been released the sound parameter rises from sustain amplitude back to maximum amplitude. Some envelopes, such as that of the Korg MS-20 , have an extra parameter, hold. This holds notes at

221-490: The first guide to bending it was published by Reed Ghazala in Experimental Musical Instruments magazine, though the SK-1 was being modified as early as 1987 when Keyboard Magazine published an article on adding MIDI support. The synthesizer was one of the first pieces of equipment that Autechre had when they began recording music. Musician and score composer Michael Andrews featured

238-585: The head of the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center , in 1965, Moog developed a new envelope module whose functions were described in f T1 (attack time), T2 (initial decay time), ESUS (sustain level), and T3 (final decay time). These were later simplified to the modern ADSR form (attack time, decay time, sustain level, release time) by ARP . The most common kind of envelope generator has four stages: attack, decay, sustain, and release (ADSR). While attack, decay, and release refer to time, sustain refers to level. Some electronic musical instruments can invert

255-560: The keyboard's sample function on various songs as both repetitive motifs (Happier Than Metallica) and melodic passages (Sad Rambo). Owen Ashworth used and recorded with one for Casiotone for the Painfully Alone 's second live album In Sydney . Graham Lewis of Wire used it frequently during their late-80s period. Mount Eerie 's Eleven Old Songs of Mount Eerie consisted solely of Phil Elverum 's vocals and an SK-1, making use of its various effects and built-in rhythm machine. It

272-587: The sustain level for a fixed length of time before decaying. The General Instrument AY-3-8910 sound chip includes only a hold time parameter; the sustain level is not programmable. Another common variation in the same vein is the AHDSR (attack, hold, decay, sustain, release) envelope, in which the hold parameter controls how long the envelope stays at full volume before entering the decay phase. Multiple attack, decay and release settings may be found on more sophisticated models. Certain synthesizers also allow for

289-854: Was born in the Hailar District of China, in modern-day Inner Mongolia to an Imperial Russian Army officer assigned to protect Trans-Siberian Railway interests. He emigrated to the United States in 1930 and studied music at Pomona College in Claremont , California (B.A., 1935 ), as well as at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester , New York (M.M., 1936, Ph.D., 1939). Ussachevsky's early, neo-Romantic works were composed for traditional instruments, but in 1951 he began composing electronic music. He served as president of

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