TASCAR
TASCAR is an open-source toolbox for acoustic scene creation and rendering, designed for spatial audio signal processing in both real-time and non-real-time workflows. Developed by Giso Grimm at Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, it is used to simulate dynamic acoustic environments for research, virtual acoustics, auditory perception, and spatial display applications. The project provides source code on GitHub, binary packages for Linux and Windows, installation guidance, and a broad feature set that spans multichannel rendering, loudspeaker calibration, head tracking, HOA processing, and OSC or MIDI-enabled control workflows. Its simulation approach is physically motivated: early reflections are modelled using a geometric image source model, while diffuse late reverberation is added through either a feedback delay network or convolution reverb. Grown out of the university's Auditory Signal Processing and Hearing Devices research group, TASCAR was originally developed for hearing aid research and audiology, and integrates with tools such as Matlab, game engines, and the Open Master Hearing Aid (openMHA) platform, and is released under the GPL-2.0 licence.
tech specs
history
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TASCAR's origins trace back to 2012, when Giso Grimm and Tobias Herzke published early work on a framework for dynamic spatial acoustic scene generation with Ambisonics in low-delay real time, followed by further development described in a 2014 paper on dynamic spatial acoustic scenarios in multichannel loudspeaker systems for hearing aid evaluations. The toolbox itself was formally presented, together with co-authors Joanna Luberadzka and Volker Hohmann, at the Linux Audio Conference in Mainz in 2015, and the underlying render methods and research applications were later documented in full in a 2019 open-access paper in Acta Acustica united with Acustica. Developed and maintained within the Auditory Signal Processing and Hearing Devices group at Oldenburg, TASCAR continues to be actively supported, with binary packages provided by Hörzentrum Oldenburg gGmbH, and the university has continued to run regular public workshops on the toolbox, including sessions covering interactive binaural rendering, Matlab and game-engine integration, and connections to openMHA.
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