[sdiy] Digital ADSR - perceivable staircase?

[David G. Dixon]

> And by now, since fast 16 and 32 bit processors are available for "walkin
> around money" - gone are
> the days when we are forced to use slow 8 bit processors where we would
> add external analog
> hardware (which could easily make configuration difficult) to make up for
> the lack of resolution.

Now we have the freedom to add external analog hardware just for the hell of
it, to make the circuit design more fun.

> So using a few more bits to get better approximations is simply using the
> best of the selection of
> tools at hand.  I'd hardly call it "hammering a nail with a pile driver".
> Also, I wouldn't call an
> envelope "lousy", as if it's not important enough to warrant such effort.
> In my view, the shape
> and accuracy of an envelope generator's output is every bit as important
> to the audio quality of a
> synth as is it's oscillators, waveshapers and filters.

OK, OK, point taken!  All I meant was that if smoothness is the major
concern, then there should be other ways to get smooth envelopes without
resorting to the sledgehammer of dividing the envelope into a
quarter-billion steps.  One way might be to use the DAC to control the
current into an integrator and thus to define the rate of change of the
envelope, rather than to define the actual magnitude of the envelope
directly.  Of course, this would involve some challenge, as the current
would have to flow in both directions, and the envelope would have to be
confined within a certain voltage window.