Operation Manual

2.4 Tutorial 4 Playing with Acoustic Objects 44
• Select a Volume module from the Envelopes section in the Browser.
• Pull one wire between the output of the Plate module and the input of the Volume module.
• Pull a wire between the output of the Volume module and the input of the Audio Out and
the Level module.
• Launch the Tassman Player with the Ctrl-T/Apple-T shortcut.
Figure 22: Tutorial 4, step 2
Playing
Now click on the trig button of the Noise Mallet and you will hear the sound of the Plate being
hit by the mallet. You can change the sound produced by the plate by changing the settings of the
different knobs appearing on the control panel. These settings control parameters that are directly
related to the material of the plate.
The damping of a plate affects the decay time of the sound produced by the object. This
parameter is adjusted using the decay knob on the front panel. When the knob is turned right,
the damping is light and the decay time long. Turning the knob to the left increases the damping
and reduces the decay time. Damping is characteristic of the material of an object. In wood, for
example, damping is high and the decay time is short; in steel, on the other hand, a lower damping
results in a longer decay time. But damping also varies for a given material depending on how the
object is used or connected to other objects. As an example, the response of a gong is longer than
that of the top plate of a steel guitar.
In a mechanical structure, the damping (or decay time) also varies for the different frequency
components of the oscillating motion. The variation of damping with frequency is yet another
characteristic of the material of a structure and is adjusted with the damp/freq knob on the module
front panel. In the left position, the decay time of low frequencies is shorter than that of high
frequencies; in the right position it is greater. As a rule of thumb, steel and glass are found in the
left position, nylon in the center position, and wood in the right position.
Try different combinations and tweak the knobs while you play so that you can hear the changes
gradually. Don’t forget to try different mallet parameters, since this too can change drastically the
resulting sound.