Have you ever wondered what a bowed marimba sounds like? Or how about the sound of a cello changing size as you play it? These feats and many others are possible with Tassman 1.2, a new modular software synthesizer from Applied Acoustics Systems (AAS).

Tassman employs physical-modeling techniques to create unique sounds. It provides a toolkit full of sound generators, resonators, filters, and other processes with which you can build accurate acoustic simulations or outrageously gritty vintage synths. Furthermore, many aspects of these sonic building blocks can vary in real time with MIDI controllers.

Software synthesizers are booming, and Tassman distinguishes itself by combining state-of-the-art physical modeling with a retro aesthetic, featuring lots of knobs, LFOs, and step sequencers. What’s more, you have a tremendous level of control over your synthesizers’ internal patching.

Synth Building 101
Tassman Builder

FIG. 1: Tassman Builder offers a versatile toolkit for synthesizer design. At the left is the Library window, where modules are arranged by category. When you select a module, its description appears in the Help window at the top. Place it in the Construction window, at right, by clicking anywhere on the screen. Virtual patch cords connect the modules and route control and audio signals. (click image for larger view).
If I taught a synthesis course, my syllabus would include Tassman. It’s the next best thing to physically patching together oscillators, filters, and so forth on an old modular analog synthesizer. In addition to an interface that clearly shows the cause-and-effect relationships between modules, Tassman comes with an impressive collection of more than 100 instruments that you can use as study models. The synths are organized into three categories: Analog, Acoustic, and Miscellaneous. Within these groups, you’ll find all manners of bowed beams, blown bells, and bubbling basses. Each instrument includes several presets, and you can download more instruments at the AAS Web site.

 Tassman actually consists of two separate programs: Builder lets you assemble the synths (see Fig. 1); Player then lets you hear the results. Builder is a straightforward application that includes a Library window (on the screen’s left), where you find a bin full of building blocks; and a large Construction window (on the right), where you assemble your synths. A Help window is located at the top of the screen.

To begin your design, select the module type you need in the Library window. (To see a complete modules list, check out the AAS Web site.) First click on a module icon, then click on the Construction window where you want the module to appear. If you prefer multiple copies of a module, shift-click on the Construction window as many times as needed. Once you place the modules in the Construction window, you connect them by pulling virtual patch cords from one to another. To discover what a module’s inputs and outputs consist of, position the mouse on them to see an informative display.

When you select a module in either the Library window or the Construction window, the module’s description appears in the Help window. The printed documentation offers more detailed module descriptions, but the Help Window provides a good deal of practical information
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As a general rule, a module’s output can be patched to any number of other modules. This allows, for example, a keyboard module’s Velocity output to control an oscillator’s amplitude and a filter’s cutoff frequency at the same time. Builder also lets you save and import subpatches, which are groups of modules or entire synths that you can encapsulate in a single module. Subpatches let you reuse your favorite inventions as parts of new designs and can simplify a complex synthesizer’s layout. You can enter a subpatch’s description before saving the subpatch, and this description appears in Builder’s Help window, just like with Tassman’s stock modules.
 

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Reprinted with permission from Magazine, December, 2000
© 2000, Intertec Publishing, A Primedia Company All Rights Reserved


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