I am from a classical music background, having learned to play instruments using notation and music terms (molto, piano, forte), etc. This means I spend a lot of my time writing music in digital notation, as a traditional composer might. This may seem silly to some folks, but I think it gives me much more control over the sound than other methods do. Since I am not the only classically trained musician who might be looking at getting into this world, I felt like I could share some great things I have learned to relate to digital music.

The ADSR Envelope

In simple terms, the ADSR envelope is the juice of music production:

1. Attack – Time to reach full volume (crescendos)
2. Decay – Settling down (decrescendos)
3. Sustain – Keep it alive
4. Release – Fade after a certain point

Music Terms in Producer Speak

1. Glide/Portamento – This is most closely related to a glissando.
2. LFO – “Low Frequency Oscillator” – This takes two forms: pitch and volume. If you are talking LFO for pitch, we would call this “vibrato“; but if it is LFO for volume, we would call this tremolo
3. Cutoff and Resonance – This is the difference between a conductor calling for musicians to stop at a specific moment and silence their instruments versus letting the instruments naturally fade in a concert hall.