AAS Aftermath is an expressive and unconventional expansion pack/sound collection created by sound designer Daniel Stawczyk for Applied Acoustics Systems’ String Studio. Built around String Studio’s unique physical-modeling synthesis engine, Aftermath takes familiar synth sounds into darker, stranger, and considerably more atmospheric territory.
 
The collection includes 150 presets covering basses, chords and stabs, gated sounds, leads, pads, plucked instruments, and special effects. Rather than simply recreating traditional synthesizer tones, Aftermath makes extensive use of String Studio’s modeling capabilities to produce sounds with organic movement, unusual resonances, evolving textures, and an often cinematic edge.
 
A major part of the collection is its 49 special-effect instruments. These range from mechanical and percussive textures to eerie ambiences, abstract sound-design elements, distorted acoustic-like sounds, and effects that can quickly add tension and character to a track. The result is a library equally useful for electronic music, experimental production, film and game scoring, ambient work, or anyone looking for sounds that go beyond conventional synth presets.
 
Despite its more adventurous personality, Aftermath remains highly playable. Many of the presets respond dynamically to performance, taking advantage of the expressive qualities of AAS physical modeling rather than relying on static sampled material.