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Can GeoShred control standalone SWAM instruments?
Hi folks!
I noticed that GeoShred is on sale. Im thinking if it makes sense to buy it, at least for learning the fretboard even away from guitar. And I’m curious, I have a pretty big collection of SWAM plugins and obviously I don’t want to spend this money again for GeoSWAM. How good is GeoShred for controlling regular SWAM instruments? Are there any limitations?
Comments
I seem to remember that it can’t. In fact, pretty sure I bought GeoShred for exactly that reason and was gutted to find out that they’re not compatible.
OK then. 20 bucks saved
Thank you very much!
They are absolutely compatible .
I use the combination of GS and SWAM in the majority of my (700 plus) tracks. No limitations to the best of my knowledge.
This is a recent example that I think shows its expressiveness
Do you use MPE mode or smth like that? Are SWAM effects (growl, flutter etc) assignable to GS faders?
GS has a specific midi preset for SWAm which is fully MPE.
Yes all are fully assignable.
Not at iPad at moment but can supply more details later.
My apologies then @vlaoladis . @GeoTony is definitely the GeoShred oracle! In fact, I nearly tagged him, but didn’t want to be presumptuous ☺️
There was some limitation though…..can you think what it was @GeoTony ?
I believe you can use the free "Geoshred Control" app as an MPE controller for external SWAM apps (among others). It doesn't have any of the geoshred-built-in sounds, but it seems you're not interested in those anyway.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geoshred-control/id1336247116
Or, not sure, maybe it's outdated and Geoshred Play now fills that role:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geoshred-play/id1227932062
As Tony said, they are absolutely compatible. The only thing is that setting Geoshred up as a midi controller can be a bit more complicated than you'd expect / hope. But absolutely, Geoshred is one of the best controllers for this, and is much better than the rather pathetic little keyboard that Audio Modeling include in their SWAM apps.
Overall, despite Its flaws (slightly ugly ui, bloated menus etc) Geoshred is worth getting for anyone who is interested in playing music on a guitar-like surface on the iPad touschscreen.
They are, but you'll have to figure out the setup. There are a lot of different midi mappings also already in Geoshred, but at times I've found it very complicated to choose the right ones. It's all there in the text manual and in their video manuals tho
I’ve just opened GeoShred Play (maybe that’s the issue- that GeoShred and GeoShred Play are different things?), and I can’t seem to access any of the SWAM instruments I own…
They're different yes, I think you have to use them on the version you bought them for.
👍🏽 @Gavinski
What do you mean by access your SWAM instruments? You need to route the midi from GeoShred to the SWAM (or other instrument) in your host. What host are you using?
If you post screenshots of what you are doing someone can probably help you.
Ah. Ok. Just opened in AUM and works perfectly. Thanks @espiegel123
Wow, thank you all for responding so quickly.
OK, I will first check Geoshred Control and then think if it worth buying the main app with its guitar sounds
@espiegel123 is of course correct, you need to connect GS to SWAM in your DAW of choice.
@Kashi , I’m surprised you can control the SWAM instruments from GS Play, I thought only GS Connect and Pro could do this as in this handy feature comparison chart…
https://www.moforte.com/feature-comparison/
I’m not sure I agree with @Gavinski (sorry Gav 🤔) re difficulty in setting up… it’s just a three step process…
1 Connect GS to SWAM in your DAW
2 In GS select the ‘MIDI Out iOS SWAM’ preset
3 In SWAM select the ‘GeoShred Default’ template
that’s it !
I’m surprised too @GeoTony ! But I did what @espiegel123 suggested and within seconds was playing an Alto flute…. Maybe this is where my earlier scepticism came from (?) Anyway, seems to be working.
You should be able to see in that chart that the free Geoshred Control app has the same midi controller functionality as the Pro version.
Nice! Mine was more a general comment about the midi setup in Geoshred, not specifically about connecting to swam instruments. Good that that's so easy.
I'd probably recommend buying the main app tbh, as you may want to own some of the Naada instruments. There's lots of stuff available there that is not found in swam instruments. Plus, the Geoshred versions of swam instruments are cheaper, and although they may give slightly less control than you get with the original swam versions, it'll be enough control for most people, regardless
Thanks all for the comments. Yes Free GeoShred Control, GeoShred Play+Pro or GeoShred Pro can be used as an MPE controller for either iOS or desktop SWAM. There are 2 presets in the "MIDI Out" Setlist (bank). "MIDI Out iOS SWAM" and "MIDI Out Desktop SWAM" designed to support this.
WIth the GeoSWAM presets, the control of the GeoSWAM Models is a little different than Native SWAM. For instance the GeoTenorSax has a control called "Growl Enable" and the Growl is controlled with a Lookup Table (LUT) so that it only engages at the end of the range of the KeyY Motion or MPE Expression (Channel Pressure, aka Channel After Touch)
Also in GeoShred a KeyY or MPE Expression (Channel Pressure, aka Channel After Touch) can be set to control multiple (infinite) model controls each with it's own lookup table.
Many of the presets exploit this feature ... single expressive control, multiple model controls with individualized lookup tables. For instance that is how the Vowel presets work. The parametric EQ is used to simulate vowels. When you KeyY or MPE expression each of the 4 PEQ sections is controlled simultaneously through it's own independent lookup table.