Similar to standard ADSR envelopes, the E/SQ series allows you to set both the AMOUNT or VOLUME LEVEL of each individual ADSR step (the L-Values) and the amount of time it takes to reach those steps (the T-Values).

Use the following table to set you envelope rates to the desired millisecond times.

(continued after table)

An incorrect notion that you may come across on old internet postings was the idea that the ESQ/SQ80 envelopes were "slow". As you can see from this table, it would be possible (at minimum settings) for the synth to complete an entire envelope cycle in point-oh-forty-four milliseconds. --Half that, really, because only the attack and decay stages are necessary for the most rudimentary type of envelope.

It's likely that the "slow" rumor got started by someone who didn't understand the envelopes as well as you do (now that you've read this webpage). The idea may have been parroted around the review boards by lazy or uninformed posters. Indeed, you can find a few postings from people who have delved deeper into the synth to discover the envelopes to be quite responsive.

If 22 or 44 thousandths of a second is too slow for you, then your musical ear is working at an entirely different level than mine. It's no coincidence that the 11 millisecond step time we are talking about is very close to the 10 millisecond unit of time known as a "jiffy". Maybe in the future someone will come out with pico second-accurate envelopes for you.

NOTE:
Some have questioned why the zero value for the envelope is 11 milliseconds and not, well, zero. The reason is that an envelope, by definition, must occur over some span of time.

It would make no sense for an envelope to evolve or change in "none-time", as this would essentially constitute no "envelope" at all, or at least not the kind of change that an audio/filter envelope is designed to model.

The creators of the E/SQ series probably decided on the 11 millisecond minimum based on a logical division of the timer circuit. [The previously-mentioned 10 millisecond "jiffy" is the cycle time for a 100 Hz frequency. So you can do the math... ]

UPDATE: A note from Dr. Rainer Buchty reminds me that the ESQ/SQ80 utilizes no external timing circuit.  All timing is handled internally by the CPU. So the time slices provided are definitely a property of the the Motorola 6809 clock speed.  [This of course has nothing to do with the sequencer’s ability to accept an external midi clock or synch to an analog click track.  We are speaking only of the timing sources of patch modulation sources.]