Tassman-style modal synthesis

Chet · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:17 am Post subject: Tassman-style modal synthesis

The Tassman softsynth has modules that emulate struck objects, including strings, bars, plates, and membranes. You can program things like 'where' you strike the object, the material (metallic to woody), and the decay time.

I think they use 'modal synthesis', which is a bank of tuned high-resonance bandpass filters.

I'd like to see these modules on the G2. They would open up a lot of new avenues for synthesis. The patents, if any, should have expired years ago.

mosc · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 10:28 am Post subject:

Couldn't you patch up something yourself to do this kind of thing? I have no experience with the Tassman modal synthesizer, but it would seem like the G2 has enough building blocks to tackle something like this.

Chet · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject:

I've tried, without much success. I think that Tassman uses 2-pole bandpass filters, with extremely fine control of the resonance. On the G2, the filter either doesn't ring long enough, or it rings forever.

There's also the issue of calculating the frequencies, decay times, and relative amplitudes of the filters. It's pretty advanced math, which Tassman simplifies down to a few knobs.

They seem to pre-calculate some of their stuff. For example, the size of a plate, and the strike position of the mallet, must be pre-entered into a dialog box. You can't modulate those parameters. They don't do that kind of tough math in realtime.

You can actually simulate some of those things by using sine oscillators and percussive envelopes. But then you can't do things like 'excite' the plate with different kinds of mallets, or sound signals.

Rix · Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2004 3:59 pm Post subject:

The 'metallic' attacks, etc, could be made by Ring-modulation or FM, and then added to the other sound...

Tim Kleinert · Posted: Thu Nov 25, 2004 3:34 am Post subject:

Chet wrote: