Understanding Envelopes

Envelopes are tools which define shape for an individual aspect of sound over a short duration of time. Many times you will hear of an ADSR envelope. This is an envelope with 4 unique points. ADSR stands for Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release. The Attack is the duration of the sound from silence to its loudest point. The Decay is the duration from the top of the attack to the point in which the sound sustains. The Sustain is a unique point in that its main purpose is to keep the sound at a constant level until it is released. Finally, the Release is equal to the duration from the sustain back to silence.
Envelopes may pertain to many aspects of sound including Amplitude, Pan, Filter, LFO-freq, and Pitch.
The Sustain is a particularly important point in any sample with loops, since this is the point in which the majority of the loop will be executed.
Envelopes are available in many instances throughout Buzz, the most obvious being the Visual Envelope Editor located in the Wavetable Editor. Adding Envelopes to samples is an easy and visual way to greatly alter and enhance their sounds. Envelopes also appear (mainly in non-graphical form but rather as parameters) throughout various synthesizers within Buzz.
Important Note: Not all machines which support samples support envelopes. A good example of one that does is the Mathilde Tracker.