ADSR
Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release – the different phases of the ‘envelope’ of a signal.
The ADSR receives a GATE from the main interface – this runs through some stages as long as a key is pressed.
Attack – how fast the sound ‘opens up’.
Decay – time it takes after the attack to go down to sustain level.
Sustain – level the sound stays on after decay phase, as long as key is pressed.
Release – time it takes for the sound to go silent after releasing a key.
AM
Amplitude Modulation – input on a VCA that takes ADSR’s envelope or LFO signal to make volume go up and/or down, like used for tremolo
CV
Control Voltage – on analog synthesizers this was the voltage used to drive oscillators, filters or anything you would like to control externally.
In Voltage Modular the same terms are used. Normally this signal would be 1 Volt/octave, meaning that with a rise of one volt connected to an oscillator, the pitch would rise one octave.
ES
External Signal – input to receive signals for filtering on a VCF, or to amplify on a VCA
EXT
External source input on a VCO that receives CV (Control Voltage). This could be the PITCH signal from the Voltage Modular main interface, or a Pitch signal from a sequencer, or any other signal you want to ‘drive’ the oscillator with.