Gear review: Applied Acoustics' Tassman 3
$449 (electronic); $499 (boxed)
Physical materials have a wide range of acoustic properties such as energy absorption,
resonance, reflection and modulation. These properties are well-understood in
the sense that these can be set to transform abstract equations into reasonably
accurate sounds — the kinds of sounds that these materials would make when
struck, plucked or otherwise manipulated by other materials. The third version
of Applied Acoustics' Tassman
allows these familiar properties to be encapsulated within an environment of
objects responding to other objects, strung together
into a single instrument. This synthetic instrument is a model, an approximate
reproduction of the way an object would respond to being made to yield sound.
Take a piano, for instance. Where a conventional synthesizer might change the
speed of a piano note sample to imitate the full range of the 88-key instrument,
a synth based upon physical modeling considers the process which generates this
unique sound: from the piano key's velocity, to the constituent material of the
damper felt and hammer, to the length, tension and material of the wire, all
the way to the shape of the wooden soundboard. Modeling requires a computer sufficiently
fast and powerful to solve complex equations, but the theory is that looking
at the physical system as a whole results in a more accurate imitation of the
sound an instrument makes. What's more, the plasticity of software provides us
with the ability to make entirely novel and interesting instruments from materials
with impossible properties, giving rise to sounds never before heard.
Tassman takes this idea and expands upon it by collecting a wide assortment of
base classes of objects: envelopes, oscillators and generators of various types,
sequencers, input and output objects to allow interaction and presentation, as
well as resonators, filters and effects which modify the sound of other objects.
Much like an electronic circuit, objects are strung together with virtual patch
cable into two types of larger objects: a sub-patch or an instrument. A sub-patch
is itself an object and can be incorporated with other objects into a more complex
arrangement. An instrument can then be programmed or would otherwise interact
with the end user via another software sequencer or a MIDI controller.
Its modular construction makes it hard not to be reminded of a similar package
with its ancestry at IRCAM (Institut
de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique)
called Max/MSP, and perhaps this inspiration is not entirely accidental. Applied
Acoustics Systems was founded in 1998 by IRCAM graduates Marc-Pierre Verge and
Phillipe Dérogis, both acoustical engineers. Stéphan Tassart, another
engineer from the IRCAM school, came aboard later that same year, and all three
began work on what became Tassman. The comparison is more than skin deep, however.
Upon closer inspection there are many features that set it apart from its older
brother.
As with Max/MSP, two modes are available to the user, either the Builder or Player
mode. In Builder mode, objects are brought in from a hierarchical module browser.
Links are made between various objects' inlets and outlets with virtual patch
cord. Clicking once on each object brings up a short paragraph about the object
and its connection options, a very helpful design feature that assists with building
an instrument or sub-patch. Entering the Player mode brings your creation to
life — it then responds to its own modulators and sequencers, or to your
external software or hardware controllers. And as in the Max environment, Tassman
allows you to quickly bundle a creation into a sub-patch that can be incorporated
into a larger grouping of objects. This enables much faster and easier development
and debugging of a complex instrument, reducing the chance that a setting misstep
in one part of the instrument will irreparably break the entire setup.
However, in terms of the palette of base objects available to the user, the third
version of Tassman extends this collection with a number of useful objects that
set it on a level of utility above Max/MSP. These include compressor, tremolo,
and static and sync delay effects, an ADAR envelope, and additional low- and
high-bandpass filters with modulators. An additional feature is a gate and CV
sequencer, which along with voltage logic and VCA objects allows you to create
unique digital triggers.
And while it is possible to build simple instruments from the same range of basic
objects available from within Max/MSP, it is really the class of resonator objects
that makes Tassman unique. Examples include tubes, plates and mallets, all of
which behave in ways which have been studied in a lab situation and their acoustic
qualities reduced to a few user-adjustable parameters in an equation. You can,
for example, quickly set up a chorus object with a VCO object (voila: instant
metallic string), add a VCA switch and find out what might happen from hitting
the string with a mallet, with the output resonating inside a tube of a certain
length and radius. Every resonator object has distinct, adjustable physical characteristics,
lending a synthetic instrument a living, breathing feel that wasn't easily possible
before Tassman.
Tying these properties to modulation objects or controllers whilst a sound is
being generated in real time is why Tassman is so much fun. This sense of play — of
immediately rewarding your experiments — is what makes Tassman such a thrill
to use and such an inimitable piece of software.
Tassman 3 will run on a Mac with a G4 processor, either under Mac OS 9 or OS
X 10.2. It will also run on a Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP workstation. Both require
either an ASIO, CoreAudio or DirectX sound card and, to take full advantage of
the control options that are available, Applied Acoustics recommends having a
MIDI
keyboard
on hand. Nonetheless, a mouse is sufficient to get access to the internal sequencer
and modulation objects. Additionally, it will integrate into sequencers which
support DXi, MAS, DirectConnect or VST instrument protocols. Ableton Live and
Emagic Logic users under Mac OS X will have to wait for a future revision or
for the VSTi host Bidule to be finished before they can control Tassman as a
Rewire slave.
The user manual is built into the application and available from the Help menu.
Its four tutorials are essential for getting your feet wet, learning the basics
of the interface and some of the nuts and bolts objects needed to get sound out
of your instrument. Beyond that, there are a few ways to learn about objects
not covered in the tutorials. One way is to click once on an object while in
the Builder mode, which brings up a short description of its function in the
information pane. Another is to find its specification in the user manual, which
also displays how it will appear as a widget in the Player mode. A third way
is to visit the user forum for Tassman, available from Applied Acoustics' website,
which allows users to share sub-patches and whole instruments, as well as ask
questions, comment on or request new features, and receive feedback from others.
Imitating and modifying others' designs and ultimately getting your hands dirty
throwing objects together are perhaps the best ways to learn some of the more
advanced possibilities.
Performance may be an issue for some. This is a modeling synthesizer, and by
creating sound from scratch, your processor will be taxed to the extent that
you have multiple voices and complex arrangements of sub-patches running concurrently.
The sound engine in Tassman 3 was rewritten to improve both performance and quality,
however, and with a 800 MHz G4 processor, 2-channel USB audio adapter and Oxygen
8 MIDI controller, my CPU usage never climbed above 50% or suffered any clipping
or distortion with a more intricately written, four-voice instrument. Running
by itself may not be a problem, but within a software host or another sequencer,
you may need to design your Tassman instrument carefully. The manual and information
pane provide good hints on object use and general design practices that minimize
processor usage.
As with any application, there are a few minor shortcomings. Of those objects
which have numeric counters, it would be nice to be able to right-click on the
counter and have a dialog box appear to enter a specific value. By adjusting
the graphical dial, it is not currently possible to reach some numeric values,
which can make getting the right tempo for a vanilla LFO object, for example,
difficult or impossible. In the meantime, Applied Acoustics recommends the use
of a Sync LFO or sequencer module for more precise beat-matching. As a sub-patch
design gets increasingly more complex and wires cross over one another, the circuit
layout in the Builder mode can be difficult to read and rewire. Though groups
of modules can be associated with a color label, use of a semicircle where wires
cross would make reading a circuit slightly easier. Developers at Applied Acoustics
indicate that future revisions of Tassman will likely include these and similar
improvements.
In sum, this is one amazingly powerful and versatile sound tool. Certainly it
has a much more friendly learning curve than Max/MSP and offers much more in
the way of module types and connectivity options. And if you want to learn the
basics of sound design or you don't have the living space or money for a modular
analogue synthesizer like the Döpfer A100, Tassman 3 is an inexpensive and
convenient way to get started. Despite a few very minor deficiencies, its interface
lends itself to quick development of entirely new and fascinating sounds, all
within a smart, tidy environment. This program is quite a pleasure to use and
its near-infinite range of possibilities is more or less limited only by your
imagination, design skills, and processor power.
last
updated
June 14, 2003
