Tabla

A physical-modeling tabla — the North-Indian drum pair — as one instrument: the treble dayan (the small, pitched, ringing drum) and the bass bayan (the large, bendable boom). It's synthesized, not sampled: two banks of resonant modes tuned to real tabla acoustics, played with a Bol (stroke) selector. The dayan's loaded centre patch (syahi) makes its overtones near-harmonic so it sings a clear pitch — even though, like a real tabla, its fundamental is slightly sharp and usually muted, so you hear the implied root.

Two ways to play it

The tabla is a pair of drums, so it gives you both a one-trigger bol machine and two independent drum voices — use either, or both at once.

As a bol machine — one trigger plays whole named strokes, including the compound ones that hit both drums:

  • strike — the hit. Each rising edge plays the current Bol (or the one

the bol CV selects).

  • bol — when patched, 0–10 V selects the stroke (0 V = Na → 10 V = Dhin),

locking the menu to show what's playing. Drop a quantized CV / sequencer here to play actual tabla phrases — "Dha Dhin Dhin Dha…" — Dha and Dhin included.

As two drums — fire each drum on its own trigger (e.g. from two lanes of a gate sequencer), each playing the stroke you pick in the panel:

  • dayan — strikes the treble drum with the Dayan stroke (Na/Tin/Tun/Ti).
  • bayan — strikes the bass drum with the Bayan stroke (Ge/Ka).
  • Firing both on the same beat = a Dha/Dhin-style compound — assemble your own.

Shared by all three triggers:

  • accent — velocity: louder, brighter, and a touch more pitch movement.
  • bend — the bayan's heel-of-hand pitch bend (the signature "gish"

glide). Patch an envelope: bend it down then up under a Ge for the talking bass.

  • out — mono audio.

Strokes

  • Na / Tin / Tun — open ringing dayan strokes (rim / border / centre): bright

ring → bell → round. Na rings over a killed fundamental (struck at the rim).

  • Ti — a closed, damped dayan click (short and dry).
  • Ge — the open bayan boom.
  • Ka — a flat-palm bayan slap: a dry thud with no pitch.
  • Dha = Ge + Na, Dhin = Ge + Tin — the compound bols that fire both

drums at once (the reason they live in one module). You can also build them by firing the dayan and bayan triggers together.

Controls

STROKE — what each trigger plays.

  • Bol — the compound stroke for strike + the bol CV (Na…Dhin).
  • Dayan — the stroke the dayan trigger fires (Na/Tin/Tun/Ti).
  • Bayan — the stroke the bayan trigger fires (Ge/Ka).

DAYAN (treble)

  • Sa — the dayan's pitch (200–400 Hz), tuned to your tonic. (Tabla tunes on

the 1st overtone, so this sets that reference.)

  • Syahi — the loaded-head harmonicity: at 1 (default) the overtones lock to

the harmonic 1:2:3:4:5 stack (the classic pitched tabla); lower it toward 0 for the raw, inharmonic, unloaded membrane.

  • Sharp — how sharp the (usually muted) fundamental sits, ×1.00–1.10.
  • Body — the fundamental's level. Low (default) = the muted, "missing-

fundamental" dayan; raise it for a rounder, fuller centre tone.

  • Ring — dayan decay (a good dayan rings for seconds).

BAYAN (bass)

  • Tune — the bayan's pitch (70–130 Hz), loosely set, usually below the dayan.
  • Boom — bayan decay.

OUTPUT — Level.

Tips

  • Sequence the bol input with a quantized CV to play real compositions; trigger

with a clock into strike. Or run two gate lanes into dayan / bayan and play the two drums as separate parts.

  • For the talking bayan, send a short rising/falling envelope into bend on the

Ge/Dha strokes.

  • Turn Syahi down for an untuned, raw frame-drum-like membrane; up for the

pitched tabla. Body up + Tun = the round, open centre stroke.