I read the review of the AAS Modeling Collection in the SONAR 2017.06 Tech+Music eZine, which offers a 40% discount through August.
 
I was intrigued by Tassman. I personally like modeling style synthesizers, and have Absynth.  From what Craig wrote about it in the eZine, I thought Tassman sounded interesting. I headed to AAS's site to look for a video or some sample tracks. The first thing I found was the discount there was even bigger than Cakewalk's. Normally $350, now on sale for $100 in August.
 
Next I checked their forum to see if there is an active user group. I selected "Community", but there doesn't seem to be a forum....
 
I came back here, and searched in the Sonar forum for Tassman.  Nothing found. Odd, But sometimes the forum search has issues, so I used Google with  site:forum.cakewalk.com tassman.    That's where it gets interesting.
Check out this thread from 2004, where someone is choosing between Tassman 4 and Reactor.  Tassman was at version 4 in 2004, and that is still the current version, 13 years later? Red flag! No wonder it is deeply discounted.
In 2004 we were using Windows XP.   Where was Sonar then? The first iteration after Pro Audio?
Yet the AAS web site says "Windows 7 32‑/64‑bit or later".  So maybe it was re-compiled without changing anything else?
Is anyone using Tassman with Windows 10 64 bit? In Sonar Platinum 2017.7?
 
Please fill me in - I had never heard of Tassman until Craig's review. I'm going to download the demo and see what it does.
 
 
 
 

It's pretty esoteric but also really powerful...not a mass-market kind of product. You can also get lost in it for days at a time 
 
As to its age, once you play with it you'll see it's a pretty complete package unto itself. I suppose they could add more modules, but there's already plenty there.

Just because it says version 4 doesn't mean its not now V4.112 or something and they added VST 64-bit support since 2004.
Old audio software doesn't necessarily age poorly provided it still works with current systems which this seemingly does.
It had very good reviews then so it still may well be good now.
They may have just added bug fixes over the last 10+ years.
Why not just try the demo?
It's cheaper here in US $ pricing:
http://everyplugin.com/tassman-4.html
 

Tim,
Others may have different advice.
Have had Tassman for ages. Nice synth, but the one I use least from the AAS stuff. Have Ultra Analog, Lounge Lizard and String Studio. Tassman just faded off my radar. Not that it is not way cool, just that it doesn't fill a niche that has me running to it. 10 years ago Tassman was higher on the pole than it is now.
The $350 price tag is absurd. 100 dollars is too much unless it strikes you like lightning that it is a must have. Never gave me that ultimate thrill.
This day and age, likely a hundred bucks that can be better spent. (sorry AAS for a less than stellar opinion)
John

JohnKenn
Tim,
Others may have different advice.
Have had Tassman for ages. Nice synth, but the one I use least from the AAS stuff. Have Ultra Analog, Lounge Lizard and String Studio. Tassman just faded off my radar. Not that it is not way cool, just that it doesn't fill a niche that has me running to it. 10 years ago Tassman was higher on the pole than it is now.
The $350 price tag is absurd. 100 dollars is too much unless it strikes you like lightning that it is a must have. Never gave me that ultimate thrill.
This day and age, likely a hundred bucks that can be better spent. (sorry AAS for a less than stellar opinion)
John

I think it's more in the realm of something like Reaktor which is not for everyone.
Here's a brief yet positive review:
http://www.soundonsound.c..eviews/aas-tassman-v4.0
Considering its power for the price of $86.74 that I linked to earlier I'd say it's a bargain if you like modular synth designing.
 
AAS make some great stuff and I can recommend their bundle:
http://everyplugin.com/modeling-collection.html
I bought it on offer and sold Tassman as I already had Reaktor so knew I wouldn't spend much time with it.
With the bundle all the products are still separate licences which is handy if you want to share them with a friend or sell on.
I like the way they physically model strings and drums for example and give you so much control.
Reminds me of what Yamaha used to do many decades ago..
http://www.soundonsound.c./reviews/aas-chromaphone

The most recent release is 4.1.8 from Aug 8 2014. There are 32 and 64 bit VST versions of the plug-in. It runs OK in SONAR. The interface is a little old and needs an update. I held out hope for a Tassman 5 for a long time but have pretty much given up. As it is, the synth sounds pretty good but if I were considering buying modular synth plug-in, I would look at NI Reaktor and Softube Modular before committing to Tassman 4.

Thanks for the quick response, Craig. After running the demo, here's what I learned:
The version number is 4.1.8, and the exe and dlls are dated 2014. 
 
I added the 64 bit VSTs to the Sonar VST path, but after scanning and restarting Sonar, Tassman was not available as an Instrument.  I removed the 64 bit VST path from Sonar's plugin paths, and added the 32 bit VST path. It re-scanned, but Tassman was still not available as an instrument. Maybe a demo limitation?
 
Running standalone, Tassman has the "DPI Unaware" problem. On a high resolution, high DPI monitor, text and features are very small, with no setting for zoom or scale factor that I could find.
 
The Help menu has a choice for "Join the User Forum". That opens the browser to community.applied-acoustics.com/php/forum/, which immediately redirects to https://www.applied-acoustics.com/.  So it looks like there is no forum.
 
There are a number of "audio processing" features that require an audio input, but the audio settings only selects an audio output. Maybe a demo limitation?
 
After auditioning a few dozen presets, and looking at the modules, nothing grabs me as amazing. I agree that there is a lot of power available for pushing through the learning curve.
 
(thanks scook - you posted while I was writing this)

I remember using that years ago, complex to get your head around although it let me create this really eerie sounding pad synth - almost like a Brian Eno synth choir sound.
 

I have had Tassman since the version bundled with SONAR years ago. Never had any issues with the latest VST but my video is set to 100% @ 1920x1080. It does sound like the demo has a lot of features missing. Still would like to see an updated UI even if it were a paid update.

I still haven't decided if I want to buy Tassman, but I have a lot of respect AAS for keeping the program updated over the past 13 or more years of Tassman 4.  (I'm assuming owners have received updates from 4.0 to 4.1.8 at no charge?)
 
I have owned too many software products that come out with an "upgrade" to a new version every few years that costs at least half of the original purchase price, and really doesn't offer any new functionality beyond working with the latest version of Windows.