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Playing SWAM instruments
I’m thinking of buying one of the SWAM instruments - maybe the sax bundle. How do people on the forum play SWAM instruments? On the App Store it states:
I don’t have any hardware connected to my iPad. Thanks
Comments
You can use an iPad controller like GeoShred or Velocity kb. Both work very well. GeoShred has swam tenor sax as an iap.
I think if you don’t have an mpe controller, probably using geoshred is the best option. It is easy to play these expressively in Geoshred. As said above, you can either buy many of these instruments in Geoshred - the bundles in geoshred are especially good value and are much more interesting assortments than the Swam bundles, which tend to be very specialized. You want 4 variations of a trumpet in one bundle lol? Audio Modeling have you covered.
Or you can buy the Swam apps stand alone, they do have slightly more features, and use geoshred as a controller, as long as you have geoshred pro or geoshred control. Best to just get Pro I reckon. The whole thing of which Geoshred version to buy can get mighty confusing.
I use Velocity Keyboard for note input and vibrato, and a breath controller for expression.
If you don’t want to use any hardware, then GeoShred is probably the best for a guitar layout, and KB-1 if you want a keyboard type layout. I like the “finger expression” setup in GeoShred for woodwinds. It’s not quite as intuitive for strings IMO.
Lacking the breath controller, you can get expression from Velocity kb by assigning the y axis aftertouch to expression CCs.
I actually own GeoShred Pro - I use the IAP saxes, flutes etc more than anything else. I fancied diving deeper into the “real” instruments that SWAM offer - but had no idea that GeoShred could control these! Thanks
I use EWI because I am a keyboard player and a wind instrument player.
@BillS - just to be clear, you can play the SWAM instruments like you would any other synth/whatever. Using a midi keyboard, or the keyboard in AUM if you're using AUM. Of course, other controllers may help to bring the "human" touch in, but they sound incredible as they are just using a regular midi keyboard
I use Geoshred and the SWAM IAPs with a MIDI keyboard controller that has channel pressure (mono aftertouch) and it works great. The aftertouch controls the saxophone growl and the mod wheel controls the flutter.
Yes... Just make sure in the Swam settings that you choose geoshred as a controller. They have so many different options in Swam depending on the controller you use and if you don't tell Swam which one, results may vary! Drastically sometimes
But hard to do pitch bends > @jamietopol said:
Hard to do pitch bends in that setup while controlling flutter, but maybe you don't need both at the same time depending on your playing style?
I use Swam standalones with either KB-1 for keyboard style playing (using vertical slide up the key to control expression or vibrato) or GeoShred Control.
I also play some stuff in via a Midi controller.
Whatever the input method you can overdub recorded notes in Cubasis with various effects like expression or vibrato so I try to get the notes in somehow then tweak the performance.
As noted in other recent threads, this all seems easier with wind instruments compared to string.
Roli Seaboard Block 🙏🏻
I use a MIDI keyboard and TEC breath controller. The keyboard’s mod wheel for vibrato and sustain pedal for growl. I was skeptical that the breath controller and SWAM instruments would be worth it, but now that I’ve taken the plunge, I’m having a lot of fun with them. It’s like having a melodica that can sound like a clarinet, sax, trumpet, or trombone.
Great input everyone, thank you. I love KB-1 and also the GeoShred interfaces so that’s me good to go down the SWAM rabbit hole 😂. I used the violin, sax and flute GeoShred IAPs in this song on my last album….just wondering which bundle to try first. Maybe the saxes or the flutes?
Any recommendations or thoughts greatly appreciated!
I created my own controller from an iPhone using TouchOSC with faders, buttons, and an accelerometer for expression.
It was quite comfortable, but iOS has some issues with BT MIDI Connections between 2 iOS devices. It's difficult to restart a connection for several hours after it closes. And I have some plans on filming my jams, but have only an iPhone camera
So now I'm using the expression pedal, keyboard modulation wheel, and aftertouch for expression, vibrato depth, and flutter/growl/etc. And Loopy Pro UI for other controls I don't tweak too often.
TouchsOSC works well if you connect iPad to the iPhone WiFi though, but it takes some time to set up, and I want to stick to a faster solution.
Not to sidetrack you, but I have heard so few people talking about the geoshred Naada IAPs, also physically modeled, mostly Indian, instruments. Those are also really worth checking out if you like the Swam stuff.
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Super track. The Naada package would indeed fit really well with this style. Love the guitar. Are there both steel and nylon string instruments on there?
Great track @BillS , loved the guitar…do you fancy having a go on the Paul Davids challenge thread ?
Flutes are the only SWAM bundle I haven’t got. The Saxes are excellent and cover a big octave range compared with say the Trumpets. Strings are good but overlap with what’s available as Geoxxx instruments if you have those. Clarinets good but perhaps a bit niche? Same with trombones, double reeds and horns but it’s down to personal taste at the end of the day 😊
Do you have the two GeoSwam flutes? Those are in my top four favorites, along with the tenor sax and trumpet.
I am not sure if pitch bend is needed for a saxophone. For trombone, the Geoshred (on-screen) interface is terrific. I would think the Seaboard would be great too (with the "slide" strip)
I’m thinking of getting the sax bundle. I already own the GeoShred tenor sax IAP so for £60, as well as getting more sax instruments, I want to fully learn how to play these instruments. Any suggestions for good YouTubes or other sources please?
I have made vids on all the Swam bundles, mostly detailed spoken walkthroughs, just search YouTube for 'Swam gavinski' 👍
I wanted to get my favorite 1 or 2 from each bundle, instead of getting the full bundles. For this purpose, I found the side by side comparison done by @Gavinski to be very helpful in determining which instrument from each bundle had the most pleasing tone.
Good to hear. Jeez, a lot of work went into those vids, as it did with many of my early vids. It's a pity that the whole Yt iOS thing just doesn't really reward spending that much time on one video, so I had to give up on being as thorough as I used to be!
@Gavinski thank you. I spent time watching (almost studying!) all your Rozetta suite videos last summer and had a great time! Coming from 20+ years of desktop DAWs, those videos got me into iOS music and using AUM more than anything else, to the point where I now love both platforms.
What did you end getting?
Your video helped me to choose over Tuba / Bass Tuba, to pick French Horn F instead Bb. Too bad you don’t have a similar one for Flutes. But agree with @FriedTapeworm, there is nothing similar with that much depth on Youtube. You should make Patreon for the deep dive videos. 😎
Regular flute GeoSwam version is my fave. Geoswam bass flute and Naada bansuri are also very good.
I already had the GeoSWAM versions of alto sax and standard flute. From the stand alone SWAM instruments I went with baritone sax, double bass trombone, bass clarinet, bass flute, French horn, trumpet C, and the strings bundle.
My choices were very bass heavy. This was intentional for 2 reasons:
The flutes are the only ones that I actually prefer using GeoShred, instead of an expression controller. They respond so well to the finger expression in GeoShred.