This Isn't a Compressor, it's Better (Articulate: The Audio ADSR Envelope Shaper Plugin)
- newfangledaudio
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
1. Direct Control
I’ve always been fascinated by compressors. Specifically, the difference between how we talk about them and how we use them.
The first thing you learn about compressors is that they are for controlling dynamic range. When a signal’s level goes above the threshold, the compressor kicks in and reduces the gain by the ratio, keeping that reckless dynamic range in check. Man, I’ll tell you, runaway dynamic range must be a rampant problem because mix engineers tend to put compressors on everything.
Truth is, in 2025, if you’ve got a dynamic range problem you’re probably fixing it with level automation or clip gains. So what are we using them for?
It turns out, even though compressors were invented to control dynamic range in an analog workflow, they’ve never really done so transparently. Instead, compressors do some pretty cool things to audio that we’ve come to appreciate in music production. But I’ve always wondered if there was a more direct way to do those same cool things.
2. Cool Stuff
So what are the cool things compressors do?
Add Loudness
We all know compressors can be used to add loudness to recorded material. We took our crack at maximum good loudness with the Elevate Mastering Limiter.
Add Energy and Glue
More than just loudness, compression can add energy and even glue. We did a deep dive into understanding how and came up with the Invigorate Buss Compressor to give you a way of quickly dialing just the right amount of compression, limiting, and distortion to achieve energy and glue.
Reshape the Envelope
Another thing that compressors (and expanders/gates) can do is reshape the envelope of a sound - the shape of the sound over time. Creating a more direct way to reshape envelopes was the goal of our latest product: Articulate.
3. Shape Up
So what is an envelope and why is shaping it helpful?
An envelope is the shape of a sound over time, and it has a huge effect on how your brain interprets sound. The attack speed of a vibrating string can be the difference between a plucked guitar string or a bowed violin. An envelope can be any shape with a beginning, middle, and end; however, synthesizer designers have found that you can express a lot of common envelope shapes by setting an Attack time, Decay time, Sustain level, and Release time. These four values form the ADSR envelope common in many synthesizers.
For Articulate we borrowed this ADSR concept and split the sound into the very initial Attack - which creates the smack of the sound, the meatier Decay - which creates the punch, the Sustain - which is where the body of the instrument lives, and the Release - which in most recordings contains the room sound, or the air.
It’s possible to do this with a compressor. Setting the proper attack and release times, in combination with the threshold, ratio, and other parameters, can shape the attack of your sound, or bring up the air. However, this has always been a secondary effect of the gain reduction that compressors are designed for. Transient modulators have also existed for quite some time, however, they don’t give you control over the entire envelope of the sound. Finally, both compressors and transient modulators have a tradeoff between how quickly they can act, and the amount of distortion they add to the sound via the envelope detector.
4. Detecting Envelopes
If you want to shape the envelope of a sound, you need to measure it. Many of you will say, “That’s easy, use an envelope detector!” And you are smart, that is what you should do.
However, envelope detectors have a fundamental problem: they’re taking the average of the signal level. If you want a good smooth average you need to take it over a long time; but then it will not be very responsive to fast changes in the signal level. On the other hand, if you want to be very responsive to fast changes in level, the envelope detector will end up riding the shape of the wave itself, and you get a noisy result. When you try to use this noisy envelope it adds a lot of distortion to the sound. So the trick is to find an envelope detector that is very fast, but also very smooth.
Well some may say it’s a weird hobby, but fast & smooth envelope detectors have become a pastime for me. I’ve developed some cool designs, but one in particular unlocked exactly what we needed for this envelope shaper. It was fast enough to separate the initial attack from the decay section, while also smooth enough to avoid distortion in the sustain and release.
Once I had it working I knew we had to make a simple, direct plug-in for simple, direct control of the audio envelope - even after a sound had already been recorded. Four sliders and a separation control; that’s Articulate.
5. Articulate vs Punctuate as an Envelope Shaper Plugin
Astute readers may have noticed that envelope shaper plugins like Articulate are very similar to transient modulators, and we already have one of those called Punctuate. Interestingly, other than the meters Articulate and Punctuate don’t share a single line of DSP code. But that doesn’t really matter, the question is: when should you use one or the other?
The biggest difference is that Articulate was intended as a mixing plug-in while Punctuate was intended for mastering use. Articulate has low latency and uses a relatively small amount of DSP. It was also tuned primarily on drums and single instruments like guitar, piano, bass, and even vocals. That said, mastering engineers have had great success with it - and we even ship with a few mastering presets.
Punctuate, on the other hand, was designed to be used on an entire mix, as a transient shaper only. It allows you to boost or cut transient content only in the frequency bands where it occurs. This focused approach can change the feel of a mix without drastically changing its sound. However, Punctuate does require a fair amount of CPU, introduces a lot of latency, and only affects the transients - not the whole envelope. I think they’re both valuable plug-ins with individual use cases - but ultimately that decision is up to you.
And it’s a decision you can make yourself by grabbing a demo of Articulate or Punctuate.
Stay in Shape,
Dan