Assimil8or
Tallent Edition

Introduction

The Tallent Edition is an unofficial extension to the Assimil8or’s software.

If you already use an Assimil8or, read on for what’s new.

Everything in Rossum’s Operation Manual and New Features Guides still applies. The Tallent Edition adds to Assimil8or software 3.04. It doesn’t take anything away, and the new features are reached through existing buttons and change nothing until used.

Note This is an independent project. It is not made, tested or supported by Rossum Electro-Music. Report problems and ask questions at github.com/brandon-tallent/assimil8or-extended-firmware/issues.

What You’ll Need

• An Assimil8or running software 3.04. If yours is running something earlier, update it first.
• Your micro SD card.
• A computer with a web browser.
• For MIDI remote control only: a Locutus MIDI expander.

Installation

The Tallent Edition isn’t distributed as a file you can load directly. Instead, a small tool adds it to your own copy of Rossum’s software, right in your web browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

1. Download Assimil8or software v3.04 (“app-v304-260610.zip”) from the Downloads section of www.rossum-electro.com/products/assimil8or/. There’s no need to unzip it.
2. Open brandon-tallent.github.io/assimil8or-extended-firmware and select the zip file you just downloaded. A new zip file, “assimil8or-tallent-edition”, will download automatically.
3. Unzip that archive, copy both of its files (“app” and the one whose name starts with “ext-”) to the root level of your micro SD card, and insert the card into the front panel slot on your Assimil8or.
4. Select Utilities > Load Software and click the encoder. Click the encoder again as instructed.
5. When you see the success message, turn the encoder and then click it to reboot your Assimil8or with the new software.
6. Leave the card where it is. Shortly after the restart, the top line of the display will read Extension installed. You’re done.

Note If the top line reads Extension not found instead, the “ext-” file wasn’t on the card. Copy it to the root level of the card and restart. (The EQ works without it. The Grain pages and MIDI remote control don’t.)

Going Back

To return to Rossum’s software at any time, load their original “app” file with Utilities > Load Software. Your presets will still be there, and will still load.

New Features Overview

Below you will find a summary overview of the new features and functional changes in the Tallent Edition. Refer to the next chapter for detailed descriptions.

New Features

Channel EQ

A three-band equalizer and a high-pass filter on every channel, with a graph that shows what they’re doing.

Zone EQ

Any zone can have an EQ of its own in place of its channel’s.

CV Control of EQ

Each band’s frequency and gain, and the high-pass filter’s frequency, can be controlled via a CV input.

Grain Mode

A channel (or stereo pair) plays its sample as up to eight overlapping grains, for time stretching, freezing, smearing and scattering. Grains can be shaped from struck hits to backwards swells, and stereo grains spread out as they scatter.

CV Control of Grains

Eight of the grain parameters can be controlled via a CV input.

Filter

A multimode filter for each channel, or for any zone on its own: low-pass, band-pass, high-pass and notch at 12 or 24 dB per octave, Band Stop and Dual L/BP, with resonance and CV control of cutoff, resonance, Extra and type.

Time Lock

Change the pitch of a drum loop without changing its timing: every hit stays where it was in time. The timing can follow the loop’s own tempo, a percentage of it, MIDI clock or a CV clock. Works on every channel, with nothing to prepare.

Compressors

A compressor on every channel and on the mix outputs, with drive, makeup gain, parallel mix and a sidechain from another channel or the Sample input.

Reverb and Delay

Two effect sends on the mix outputs: reverb, gated reverb and chorus algorithms modeled on the Roland DEP-5, and a tempo-synced ping-pong delay with low and high cut on every repeat. Sends and effect settings take CV.

Resample

Record a channel’s own output (envelope, Bit Depth, EQ, grains and all) straight into one of its zones.

High Contrast Display

An optional display mode that draws everything in white.

MIDI Remote Control

With a Locutus installed, a computer can read and edit presets, browse the card, audition and assign samples, press buttons, read the display and more. The messages are published so that anyone can write an editor.

Automation via MIDI

A sequencer can sweep channel, EQ and grain parameters from its tracks.

Changes to Existing Features

Mutate button

On the Mutate page, pressing Mutate again now steps to the EQ pages.

Phase Mod button

On the Phase Modulation page, pressing Phase Mod again now steps to the Grain pages.

Pitch button

On the Pitch page, pressing Pitch again now steps to the Time Lock page.

Envelope button

On the Envelope page, pressing Envelope again now steps to the Filter page.

Pan/Mix button

On the Pan/Mix page, pressing Pan/Mix again now steps to the Comp, Sends, Reverb, Delay and Mix Comp pages.

Sample button

On the Grain pages, Sample starts a resample.

Presets

EQ, filter, grain, Time Lock, compressor and effects settings are saved with each preset and return when you load it.

Unsaved Changes Indicator

The yellow Unsaved Changes indicator now also flashes for unsaved edits on the new pages.

Data Compatibility

Tallent Edition presets are fully forward and backward compatible with Assimil8or 3.04. (With the exception that Rossum’s software doesn’t support EQ, filters, grains, Time Lock, compressors or effects. It ignores those settings when it loads a preset, and a preset saved from it won’t have them.)

New Features in Detail

This chapter covers general changes first, then each page.

General Changes

Finding the New Pages

The new pages live behind five buttons you already know.

Press Mutate to bring up the Mutate page as usual. Press it again for the EQ page, again for the EQ CV page, and once more to come back around to Mutate.

The Phase Mod button works the same way: Phase Modulation, then Grain, then Grain CV, then Phase Modulation again.

And so does Envelope: Envelope, then Filter, then Envelope again.

And Pitch: Pitch, then Time Lock, then Pitch again.

And Pan/Mix: Pan/Mix, then Comp, Sends, Reverb, Delay and Mix Comp, then Pan/Mix again.

Note On these pages, a second press of the button used to return you to the Home page. To get there now, press any other page button twice.

Coarse Adjustment

Hold the encoder down while turning it to change a value in large steps.

Holding Mutate and pressing a Channel button still mutes that channel, exactly as before.

Editing on the New Pages

The new pages work just like the ones you’re used to. Turn the DATA1 encoder to move the highlight from field to field. Use the DATA2 knob to set the highlighted field directly, or click the encoder to bring up the edit popup, turn the encoder to adjust the value, and click again to close it.

The Channel buttons select the channel you’re editing, and the channel map down the left side of the display shows which one that is.

Presets

EQ, filter, grain, Time Lock, compressor and effects settings belong to the preset. Save the preset and they’re saved with it. Load the preset and they’re back.

The yellow Unsaved Changes indicator on the Home page flashes for these edits just as it does for any others, and the Load Folder Warning will catch them too.

Note A preset with none of these settings is saved exactly as Rossum’s software would save it. The new settings are added to the end of the preset file only when there’s something to add.

Status Messages

Messages in the top line of the display:

Extension installed

The second software file was found on the card and installed. You’ll see this once after an installation.

Extension not found

The second software file is missing. See Installation.

Resampling, Take in zone N, Zones full: take on card and No take are described under Resample below.

Mutate Button

EQ Page

Every channel now has its own equalizer: Low, Mid and High bands and a high-pass filter. It comes after Bit Depth and Aliasing and before Pan and Mix, and it’s heard at both the channel’s own output and the mix outputs.

The graph at the top of the page shows the combined response of all the bands from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Each band has a small handle on the curve. The handle of the band you’re editing turns yellow.

Below the graph, each band has three fields:

Frequency

Each band can be set anywhere from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. All three bands cover the full range, so they can overlap or swap order. Each step of the encoder moves a band 1/120 of an octave; turn it faster to sweep.

Gain

The range is from −18.0 dB to +18.0 dB for a bell and from −10.0 dB to +10.0 dB for a shelf, at a resolution of 0.1 dB.

Shape

Low and High start out as Shelf, and Mid as Auto, a bell that’s broad for small amounts of gain and becomes narrower as you add more. Turn any of the three up to make it a bell with a Q of your own choosing, from 0.50 to 16.0.

Note A narrow bell with a lot of boost will ring like a resonant filter, and an EQ can boost a hot sample right into clipping. Lower the output level before trying either.

The bottom row has three more fields:

HPF

The high-pass filter is either Off or set from 20 Hz to 350 Hz. It removes everything below that frequency at 18 dB per octave.

EQ

Off bypasses the channel’s EQ without disturbing its settings; the curve turns gray. Hold the encoder on EQ to reset everything on this page except the CV routes, and hold again to undo.

EDIT

Selects whether you’re editing the EQ of the channel (Chan) or of one of its zones (Zone). See Zone EQ, below.

Zone EQ

Normally, every zone on a channel plays through the channel’s EQ. But any zone can have an EQ of its own instead.

Highlight the EDIT field and click the encoder to change it from Chan to Zone. The page now shows the EQ of the currently selected zone (the one indicated in the top right corner of the display).

As long as the values are gray, the zone is simply following its channel. Change any of them, and the zone gets its own copy of the channel’s EQ and the values turn white.

To return a zone to following its channel, highlight EDIT and hold the encoder down. (The heading changes to HOLD:CLR whenever there’s something to clear.) To flatten the zone’s own EQ instead, hold the encoder on EQ.

Note The Stereo/Right side of a stereo pair always plays through its Master channel’s EQ.

EQ CV Page

Press Mutate again for the EQ CV page.

The frequency and gain of each band, and the frequency of the high-pass filter, can be modulated by any of the CV inputs, with the modulation gain set by the associated attenuverter.

For each one, select a CV input in the first field and set the modulation gain, from −1.00 to +1.00, in the second.

For a frequency, the gain range is from −1.00 octaves per volt to +1.00 octaves per volt. For a band’s gain, it’s from −2.0 dB per volt to +2.0 dB per volt. (The edit popup shows you what each volt will do.)

The graph on the EQ page follows the CVs. The fields continue to show the values you set.

Note A modulated value stops at the end of its range. And if the high-pass filter is set to Off, it stays off no matter what its CV is doing.

A tip Set the Mid band to a narrow bell with a healthy boost, select a CV for MID FREQ, and send it an envelope or an LFO. This gives a resonant sweep.

Pitch Button

Time Lock

Normally, raising a loop’s pitch also speeds it up. With Time Lock on, the pitch still follows the Pitch setting, pitch CV, FM and the keyboard, but the timing of the loop’s hits stays the same. The timing follows a tempo of your choosing: the loop’s own, a percentage of it, or a MIDI or CV clock.

Press Pitch again on the Pitch page for the Time Lock page. Press it once more to go back to the Pitch page.

Here’s what the fields do:

Time Lock

On or Off for the channel. While it’s disabled, the rest of the page is gray.

Tempo

What the loop’s timing follows. The tempo it plays at is shown to the right, in BPM.

• Ch 1 follows channel 1’s Tempo, clock included. It’s the default on channels 2 to 8, and doesn’t appear on channel 1.
• Own plays the loop at the tempo it was recorded at.
• Speed plays it at a percentage of that.
• MIDI clock follows MIDI clock at the MIDI input, 24 pulses per beat.
• CV clock follows pulses at a CV input.

To make a channel follow channel 1 again, highlight Tempo, hold the encoder down and let it go.

Speed

Shown for Speed only. From 25.0% to 400.0% of the loop’s own tempo. Hold the encoder down and let it go for 100.0%.

Input, PPQN

Shown for CV clock only. The input the clock comes in on, and how many of its pulses make a beat: 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 24, 48 or 96. As elsewhere, CV A, B and C are the inputs of the channel you’re editing. A pulse starts above 1.5 V and ends below 0.75 V.

Beats

The selected zone’s loop length in beats, from 1 to 128, with the loop’s own tempo to the right. The loop is the zone’s loop when Loop Mode is on, and Sample Start to Sample End when it’s off. Auto works out the length for you (see below). Turn the encoder to set it yourself; hold it down while turning to double or halve it. To go back to Auto, hold the encoder down and let it go.

Following a Clock

Set channel 1’s Tempo to the clock and every channel left on Ch 1 follows it. They share one clock, so they all play at the same tempo and in step with each other. Any channel can choose its own Tempo instead.

A clock sets the tempo from its second pulse. After that, the module averages four beats of pulses, which smooths out MIDI timing. A jump in tempo of a fifth or more takes effect within two pulses; a smaller change settles over four beats.

A note starts the loop in time with the clock. Between pulses, playback continues at the clock’s tempo, so a pulse that arrives a little late barely moves the hits.

When the clock stops, playback continues at the last tempo, and No clock shows to the right of Tempo. When the clock starts again, playback resumes at that tempo immediately. Until a clock is received after power-up, the loop plays at its own tempo.

CV clock reads pulses at any CV input. Set PPQN to match the clock: 4 for a sixteenth-note clock, 24 for a sequencer’s 24 PPQN output.

Channels following channel 1 use channel 1’s input, even if channel 1’s input is set to one of its own CV A, B or C jacks.

Beats

Fitting a loop to a clock requires its length in beats. Auto takes a tempo from the sample’s name, such as break_170 or loop_110bpm. Without one, Auto is the length that puts the loop between 90 and 180 BPM: Auto 8 for a two-bar loop at 120 BPM.

If a loop plays at double or half the clock’s tempo, Auto picked the wrong length: hold the encoder down while turning to double or halve Beats.

A Beats setting you’ve entered belongs to the zone’s sample. When you load a different sample into the zone, Beats goes back to Auto. With Own and Speed, Beats only changes the tempo shown; the loop plays the same.

How Time Lock Sounds

There’s nothing else to set up. When you enable Time Lock, or load a sample into a channel that has it enabled, the module finds the sample’s hits by itself, in a fraction of a second. Until it has, the zone plays as it normally would.

• Each hit is the same hit you hear without Time Lock, just at the new pitch, so attacks stay crisp.
• When each hit has more audio than its time allows (pitched down, or played faster than its own tempo), it rings until the next hit cuts it off.
• When it has less (pitched up, or played slower), the end of each hit is stretched to fill the gap to the next one.

Sample Start and End, loops and the envelope work as usual. A stereo pair locks together.

Note Time Lock is made for rhythmic material: drum loops, breaks, percussion. On long sustained sounds you’ll hear the joins. Far from the original pitch or tempo it turns into an effect: grainy and buzzy a couple of octaves up, thuds and clicks a few octaves down. The timing always holds. Time Lock doesn’t apply to a channel in Grain Mode or one playing in Reverse.

A tip Put a break on a channel, enable Time Lock, set channel 1’s Tempo to MIDI clock, and play the break from the keyboard: each key plays it at its own pitch, all in time with your sequencer.

Envelope Button

Filter Page

The filter sits in front of the EQ. Each channel has one, and any zone can have its own, just as with the EQ. It’s disabled until you choose a type.

Press Envelope again on the Envelope page for the Filter page.

Each setting has its CV source and modulation gain under it, as on the stock pages. Here’s what the settings do:

Type

Off, or one of these. The 24 dB types are two filters in series.

• LP 24, LP 12 pass the low end and cut the high end.
• BP 24, BP 12 pass a band around the cutoff.
• HP 24, HP 12 pass the high end and cut the low end.
• Notch 24, Notch 12 cut a band around the cutoff and pass the rest.
• Band Stop is a low-pass at the cutoff beside a high-pass above it, and the gap between them is the stop band. Spread sets how far above. At 0 it is a notch at the cutoff.
• Dual L/BP is a low-pass at the cutoff beside a band-pass. Offset moves the band-pass from well below the cutoff at 0 to well above it at 100, and at 50 it sits on the cutoff.

Cutoff

The frequency, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Each step of the encoder moves it 1/120 of an octave; turn it faster to sweep.

Res

How much the filter rings around the cutoff, from 0 to 100. At 0 it is as smooth as it gets: 6 dB down at the cutoff (12 dB for the 24 dB types). Around 25 it is flat up to the cutoff, and at the top it is a very sharp peak. On the 24 dB types only one of the two filters rings.

Spread, Offset

The fourth field is shown for Band Stop and Dual L/BP filters only. Spread is how far above the cutoff Band Stop’s high-pass sits. Offset is where Dual L/BP’s band-pass sits, below the cutoff under 50 and above it over 50.

Edit

Selects the channel’s filter (Chan) or the selected zone’s (Zone), as on the EQ page. It’s next to the page title. A zone uses its channel’s filter, shown in gray, until you change a value with the zone selected. To make a zone use its channel’s filter again, highlight EDIT and hold the encoder down.

To start over, highlight the type, hold the encoder down and let it go: the filter returns to Off and its defaults. The CV routes are kept. Hold again to undo.

The graph shows the filter’s response. When a CV route is moving the filter, the graph follows it.

Stereo Pairs

Filters apply to both channels in a stereo pair. The right channel filter can be offset from the master. On the Filter page, press the Stereo/Right channel’s button. The heading changes to CUTOFF R. Press the Master’s button to return to CUTOFF L. A mono channel shows CUTOFF.

While the two sides differ, the graph shows both: the side you’re editing in white and the other in blue. Set the right side back to the left’s cutoff and the second curve goes away.

Any CV input can modulate Type, Cutoff, Res and the fourth field. As elsewhere, CV A, B and C are the inputs of the channel you’re editing.

With the modulation gain at +1.00, each volt moves the cutoff by two octaves, so 5 V sweeps the whole range; Res and Extra by 20 steps; and Type by two types. The cutoff follows its CV as quickly as the module’s own pitch CV does. A modulated value stops at the end of its range. Type CV never selects Off. Type changes crossfade over a few milliseconds to avoid unwanted clicks.

Note The types don’t all play at the same level: the band-passes are louder, and Notch 12, Band Stop and Dual L/BP about 6 dB quieter. A loud, resonant filter clips rather than overloading. And the filter comes before the EQ, so the EQ shapes what’s left.

A tip Pick LP 24, turn Res up, and give Cutoff a CV from an envelope.

Phase Mod Button

Grain Page

Grain mode plays a channel’s sample as a stream of short, overlapping slices called grains, up to eight at a time. Depending on the settings, the result ranges from a transparent time stretch to frozen, smeared or heavily scattered textures.

Grain mode can be enabled for a single channel or stereo pair at a time. Enabling it for another channel disables the previous one. Each channel keeps its own grain settings, so you can set up several channels and switch grains between them.

Everything else about that channel carries on as usual. You trigger it the same way, and its envelope, level, Bit Depth, EQ, pan and mix all still apply. Each grain starts wherever the channel’s playback has got to, at whatever pitch the channel is playing. That means zones, Sample Start, loops, Pitch, FM and all of their modulation steer the grains too.

Here’s what the fields do:

Grain

On or Off for the selected channel.

Size

The length of each grain, from 0.5 msec to 2 seconds. Short grains buzz and blur. Long ones play recognizable pieces of the sample.

Overlap

How many grains play at once, from 0.25 to 8.00. At 1.00, each grain starts as the last one ends. Higher values thicken the sound. Below 1.00, silence opens up between the grains. When all eight grains are already playing, the oldest quickly fades out to make room for the next.

Spray

Scatters each grain’s starting point at random by up to this amount, from 0 to 2000 msec. A little smooths out a time stretch. Large values break a loop into scattered fragments.

Detune

Shifts each grain’s pitch at random, up or down, by up to this amount, from 0 to 1200 cents.

Slide

Moves the grains’ starting point ahead of or behind the playback position by −100.0% to +100.0% of the zone’s length.

Scan

How fast the grains’ starting point travels through the sample, compared to normal playback, from −400% to +400%.

• At 100%, the grains keep up with the sample and you hear it more or less as recorded.
• At 50%, the sample takes twice as long to go by, at the same pitch.
• At 0%, it stops. The sound is frozen at the point where the note began. (Use Slide to pick a different spot.)
• Negative values travel backwards through the sample.

Pan

How far the grains of a stereo pair can spread between the two sides, from 0% to 100%. The grains only spread out as they become more random: with Spray, Detune, Oct and Rvrs at zero they stay in the middle, and the more you scatter them, the wider they go. Most grains land near the middle, with a few out at the sides. A grain panned to one side takes the other side’s sound with it rather than losing it. Pan has no effect on a mono channel.

Shape

How much of each grain is spent fading in and out, from 1% to 100%. At 100% a grain is all fade, which is the smoothest. Low values make hard-edged grains. Even so, every fade lasts at least half a millisecond, so short grains don’t click.

Skew

How Shape’s fading is divided between the start and the end of each grain, from −100 to +100.

• At 0, a grain fades in and out evenly.
• Toward −100, it starts at once and dies away, like a struck drum or a plucked string.
• Toward +100, it swells up and then cuts off, like a sample played backwards.

Oct

The percentage of grains that play an octave up.

Rvrs

The percentage of grains that play backwards.

Note Grain mode can’t be enabled on a Stereo/Right channel. Select its Master channel instead.

Another note A grain can’t be longer than the zone it comes from. If you’re not hearing any grains, check that Size is shorter than the zone, and that the channel is actually playing.

A tip Start with a loop. Enable Grain, set Scan to 0%, and sweep Slide with the DATA2 knob. Slide then scrubs through the frozen sound, by hand or from a CV.

Grain CV Page

Press Phase Mod again for the Grain CV page.

Eight of the grain parameters can be modulated by any of the CV inputs, with the modulation gain set by the associated attenuverter. As elsewhere, CV A, B and C are the inputs of the channel that’s playing the grains.

With the modulation gain at +1.00, the gain for each parameter is:

In other words, 5 volts takes a parameter across its whole range. As on the EQ CV page, the edit popup shows you what each volt will do at the gain you’ve set.

A modulated value stops at the end of its range, with one exception. Slide goes around: push it past the end of the zone and it comes back in at the beginning, so a rising ramp scans through the sample over and over.

Resample

On either Grain page, the Sample button records the selected channel’s own output into that channel’s next empty zone.

What’s recorded is the channel after its envelope, level, Bit Depth and EQ (and grains, if it’s playing them), and before Pan and Mix. A Master channel with a Stereo/Right partner makes a stereo sample.

To resample a channel:

1. Select the channel and bring up the Grain or Grain CV page.
2. Press Sample. The top line of the display reads Resampling.
3. Play the channel.
4. Press Sample again to stop. Recording also stops when memory is full.

The top line then reads Take in zone N. The new sample is in that zone, with its loop set to the whole take, ready to play. It’s also written to the current folder on the card, named for the preset and channel.

If all eight of the channel’s zones are already in use, the take is kept on the card and the top line reads Zones full: take on card. If nothing was recorded, it reads No take.

Note On every other page, the Sample button does what it has always done.

A tip Resample a channel that’s playing grains, and the resulting sample can be played in grain mode in turn.

Pan/Mix Button

Behind Pan/Mix are a compressor for each channel, two effect sends on the mix outputs (a reverb and a delay), and a compressor on the mix outputs. Press Pan/Mix again on the Pan/Mix page for the Comp page, and again for Sends, Reverb, Delay and Mix Comp. One more press returns to the Pan/Mix page.

Comp Page

The Comp page edits the selected channel’s compressor. The heading names the channel, or both channels of a stereo pair.

The compressor comes after the channel’s filter and EQ, so it acts on the channel’s own output jack and on its part of the mix.

Ratio

Off, 1.5:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 6:1, 10:1, 20:1 or Limit. Off disables the compressor and grays out its settings. Drive still works with it off.

Thresh

The level at which compression starts, from 0 to −40 dB below full scale.

Attack

How quickly the compressor reacts to a peak, from 0.05 to 100 ms. The shortest times flatten drum hits; longer ones let the start of each hit through.

Release

How quickly it lets go, from 20 ms to 2 s.

Drive

Boost with soft clipping ahead of the compressor, from 0 to 100. At 100 a quiet signal is raised by up to 30 dB, and loud peaks are rounded off. Drive works with Ratio Off too.

Gain

Makeup gain after the compressor, from 0 to +24 dB. It applies only while Ratio is on.

Mix

How much of the processed signal you hear, from 0 to 100%. Below 100% the unprocessed signal is mixed back in (parallel compression). With Ratio Off, Mix blends the driven signal with the clean one, and does nothing while Drive is 0.

Sidechain

The signal the compressor listens to. Self is the channel itself. Ch 1 to Ch 8 is another channel, before its own compressor: set a bass channel to listen to the kick channel and the bass ducks under each kick. Input is the Sample input jacks, the louder of the two.

The bar under the heading shows the gain reduction, a segment for each 2 dB up to 24 dB, with the number to its right.

In a stereo pair both sides share the master channel’s compressor and are reduced together, so the stereo image holds.

Sends Page

How much of the selected channel goes to the reverb and to the delay, from 0 to 100%.

A stereo pair sends both sides at the master channel’s settings.

Reverb, Delay

The send levels. Each has a CV source and modulation gain under it. At +1.00, 5 V moves a send from 0 to 100%: patch a gate to a send for delay throws.

Pre/Post

Where the sends are taken. Post follows the channel’s Mix Output Level, mute and solo, so a muted channel sends nothing. Pre takes the channel after its compressor and before its level, so a channel is heard through the effects even with its own level down or muted.

Reverb Page

The reverb is modeled on the Roland DEP-5 Digital Effects Processor: its reverb, gated reverb and chorus structures, run at its 32 kHz sample rate.

The reverb’s return goes to the mix outputs only.

Algo

The algorithm, numbered as on the DEP-5:

• 1 Chorus is a stereo chorus alone.
• 2 Reverb is the DEP-5’s reverb.
• 3 Rev Mod is the reverb with a slow, random drift in its tail.
• 4 Cho Rev is the reverb through the chorus: only the chorused reverb is heard.
• 5 Rev+Cho is the reverb beside a chorus of the send.
• 6 Ser/Par is the reverb beside a chorused copy of it.
• 7 NonLin is a gated reverb: a dense burst that stops dead.
• 8 NL Mod is the gated reverb with drift.
• 9 NL Chorus is the gated reverb beside a chorused copy of it.
• 11 LD NL Mod is a sparser gated reverb with drift.

The return is silent for about a millisecond after a change of algorithm.

Decay

The reverb time, from 0.2 to 10 s. On the gated algorithms (7 to 11) it reads Gate: the length of the burst, from 10 to 500 ms.

Damp

How quickly the high end dies away, from 0 to 100. 20 is the DEP-5’s.

Level

The reverb’s return level, from 0 to 100%.

Rate, Depth

The chorus’s speed, from 0.08 to 5 Hz, and depth, up to 5 ms of sweep. They’re gray on algorithms without a chorus.

Every setting but Algo has a CV route. At +1.00, 5 V moves a setting across its whole range. The routes take the CV inputs by number (1A to 8C) only: CV A, B and C would need a channel.

Delay Page

A ping-pong delay for dub-style echoes: the first repeat comes from the left, the next from the right, and so on. Each repeat passes through Low Cut and High Cut, so the echoes thin out and darken as they fade.

The delay’s return goes to the mix outputs only.

Time

The delay time as a note value at Tempo: 1/16, 1/8T, 1/16D, 1/8, 1/4T, 1/8D, 1/4, 1/2T, 1/4D, 1/2 or 1/1. Times longer than 1.37 s are halved until they fit. A change of time glides like a tape delay.

Feedback

How much of each repeat comes back, from 0 to 120%. Above 100% the echoes build up until they saturate.

Low Cut

Off, or 20, 50, 100, 200, 400 or 800 Hz.

High Cut

1, 2, 3, 5, 8 or 12 kHz, or Off.

Level

The delay’s return level, from 0 to 100%.

Tempo

What Time follows, and the tempo it plays at now:

• MIDI follows MIDI clock at the MIDI input.
• Ch 1 to Ch 8 follows that channel’s Time Lock tempo: its loop’s own tempo, Speed, MIDI clock or a CV clock, as set on its Time Lock page. Time Lock needn’t be enabled.
• 40 BPM to 240 BPM is a set tempo.

-- shows when the clock has stopped. The delay keeps its last time until the clock starts again.

Every setting but Tempo has a CV route, as on the Reverb page. Time’s CV steps through the note values.

Mix Comp Page

A compressor on the mix outputs, after the reverb and delay returns. Its settings are the Comp page’s, and both sides share one detector. Sidechain can listen to a channel or the Sample input, to duck the whole mix.

The individual channel outputs aren’t affected.

A tip On a bass channel’s Comp page, set Sidechain to the kick’s channel, Ratio to 4:1, Thresh to −30 dB, Attack to 1 ms and Release to 200 ms.

Utilities

High Contrast

The Utility>Preferences page has a new item, High Contrast.

When it’s On, all text, lines, meters and waveforms are drawn in white, which can be easier to read in some lighting. Highlighted fields are still shown in reverse. Like the other preferences, the setting is kept when you power down.

Here is the EQ page with High Contrast On. The headings, the graph, the meters and the channel map are white; compare the same page in color at the start of the EQ section.

MIDI Remote Control

If your Assimil8or has a Locutus MIDI expander, the Tallent Edition responds to a set of System Exclusive messages that let a computer or sequencer do nearly everything you can do from the front panel, and a few things you can’t:

• Read and edit every parameter of the current preset, including the EQ, filter and grain settings, and save it.
• Browse the folders on the SD card, audition samples, and assign them to zones.
• Draw the waveform of any zone or file.
• Press buttons, turn the encoder, and read the display.
• Start and stop sampling and resampling.
• Sweep channel, EQ and grain parameters from a sequencer track.

All of the messages are documented, with the source code, at github.com/brandon-tallent/assimil8or-extended-firmware, so that anyone can write an editor.

None of this changes the way Assimil8or responds to ordinary MIDI notes and controllers.

Note A message can change a parameter while you’re looking at it. The display will follow along.

Support

All other features work as described in Rossum’s documentation.