2.10.2. Envelopes Editor Section

Envelopes Editor Section

What it is

The Envelopes Editor is an interactive line chart featuring multiple series, one for each animated parameter. The series can be redrawn in real time by plotting and dragging around control points. This causes the related parameters' values to evolve accordingly, across the musical time of the generated fragment.

How does it look/behave

The Envelopes Editor UI displays as a rectangular region toward the top right of the Configuration UI window. It consumes most of this window's real estate (which is immediately visible when the window is resized) and consists of:

a static header;
the main editing environment: a 100 by 100 resizable grid where envelopes are to be shown and edited.

While not explicitly labeled, horizontal axis is called time, whereas the vertical axis is named amplitude; these names are revealed when hovering a selected control node of an envelope.

The amplitude percentage directly maps to related parameter's value (as all parameters that can accept control envelopes are percentages). Time refers to the musical time of the target output the current generator is bound to, and is given as a percentage as well. Thus, if you have set the Multiline Generator to generate into a four bars, common time Section, then a control point plotted on an envelope at amplitude: 50%, time: 50% will set the related parameter's value to 50% at the beginning of the third measure.

Note: normally, control envelopes cause parameter values to interpolate, i.e., values gradually increase or decrease in-between control points. This behaviour (which is governed by an internal, individual setting) is common to all currently implemented animatable parameters. It is perfectly possible, tough, to implement parameters whose values abruptly jump from one control point to another (i.e., hold instead of interpolate while in-between).

The gridlines and grid labels are dynamically drawn based on available space. Owing to window's current width and height and to chosen zoom level, you will be given more or less detailed marking. The 50% gridlines (but not grid labels) will always be drawn, on both axes, regardless of available space; they look slightly more thick / pronounced.

Envelopes are automatically added to / removed from the grid each time an Animate checkbox of a suitable parameter is ticked / un-ticked in the Parameters list section. The Envelopes Editor UI does not provide means for directly adding or removing envelopes.

You know what parameter an envelope refers to by hovering it: move the mouse cursor over the envelope and in-between control points, without clicking. The tooltip displayed will contain the related parameter's name. Also of help will be the fact that readonly replicas of all envelopes will be respectively displayed by the Parameters list (for all entries having their Animate checkbox ticked).

To help you focus, envelopes are selectable. Selected envelopes are drawn thicker, more opaque, and they feature a rather coarse dropdown shadow you cold hardly miss. Selecting an envelope also marks it in the Envelopes Manager.

Note: currently, you cannot select and drag an envelope to move all its control points up or down. To do this, select all control points instead (click the first, shift-click the last) and then drag one of them.

Envelopes are defined by control points. When added to the editor, each envelope is a horizontal segment defined by one initial and one final control point (both set to represent related parameter's last known value). Initial and final control points cannot be removed, nor dragged horizontally: they stick to the left and right sides of the grid, respectively.

Other control points can be added via double-click (on the envelope, in the area where you want the point to appear) and removed via right click → Delete.

Once added, you can move a control point pretty much everywhere, with one important exception: you are not allowed to horizontally overtake a neighbour / adjacent point. If you try to run into the left or right neighbour of the point you are currently dragging, you will observe that each point maintains something of a narrow but consistent "personal space" (equivalent to half of one horizontal grid unit on each side). This practically prevents you both from crossing points and from drawing vertical envelope segments.

Note: you can click and drag a node that is not currently selected; dragging a non-selected node will imply its selection and will imply selecting the envelope the node resides on.

You cannot, however, add a node and drag it around in one go (via some sort of a double-click-hold-drag mouse gesture). You need to first double-click to add the node, then release the mouse button, and only then click again to do the dragging.

The Envelopes Editor supports advanced multiple node selection: you can select both contiguous and sparse groups of nodes, by holding down accelerator / modifier keys while you left-click on the nodes. The behavior is as follows:
- a click outside any envelope unselects any previously selected nodes;
- a click on an unselected node unselects any other node in the current envelope and selects the node that was clicked;
- CTRL-click (or CMD-click) toggles the selection state of the clicked node (unselects selected nodes and vice-versa);
- SHIFT-click adds nodes to a contiguous selection (e.g., click the initial node, then SHIFT-click the final node to select all nodes in the envelope);
- ALT + SHIFT-click alters SHIFT behavior the way that you can now remove contiguous portions from a larger selection (e.g., use SHIFT to select all nodes, then, with SHIFT released, click node 3; now ALT + SHIFT-click node 5: you have removed nodes 3, 4 and 5 from the selection);
- CTRL + SHIFT-click alters SHIFT behavior the way that you can toggle portions from a larger selection (e.g., operating on the above example, with no modifier key down, click the node 2; now CTRL + SHIFT-click node 6: as a result, node 2 and 6 become unselected, while nodes 3, 4 and 5 become selected; the rest of the nodes are left untouched).
Note: currently, you cannot select nodes on more than one envelope at a time, nor can you copy / cut / paste nodes.

Selected nodes are displayed slightly larger, and with a solid white core.
zoom widgets (and related controls): two short sliders (one horizontal and one vertical) that flank a reset button; they are located near the bottom right corner of the main editing environment. A horizontal and / or vertical scroll bar show when needed, to the bottom / right of the grid.

The purpose of these controls is to give you access to lower detail envelope drawing than current window / screen size would allow.

On the end opposite the reset button, each of the two sliders causes its corresponding grid axis to be scaled up to the point where all gridlines become visible (grid labels visibility is still subject to available space); on the other end, the full axis' gamut is scaled down to fit into available space. Clicking the reset button moves both sliders to their lowest definition scale in one go (practically fitting the entire grid into view, as the button's tooltip aptly informs).

Note: some parameters are not particularly suited for very detailed envelope drawing, most notably Durations Tendency. Consult section Multiline Generator specific rules in the Use Multiline Generator article for details.
on-site documentation area: this is merely some text briefing about envelope nodes editing commands, the rationale being that you may not know where to start when you first land on the Envelopes Editor UI.