[sdiy] what is trigger signal?

[Greg Montalbano]

Mr Richter sez:
>These apply mostly to monophonic keyboards.
>
>In the ARP standard, a Gate signal is a signal from the keyboard (or other
>controller) the indicates a key is pressed. It goes active and stays active
>as long as at least one key is depressed.
>
>But what if a new key is depressed before the old one is let go? There needs
>to be a "new key" signal that will "trigger" a new attack for that note from
>the envelope generator. That is the Trigger signal, for the most part it
>indicates a new key has been pressed, even if the old one is not released
>yet.

You can get a helpful graphic representation of all this by checking out
one of the old monosynth manuals (they almost always illustrated the
gate/trigger effect on ADSRs), or by checking out some of the ADSR data
sheets at someplace like Synthtech.com
(e.g., the CEM3310 or 3312).

~G