SWAM Clarinet

For many years composers wanting to work in the iPad OS eco system had a lot of fun with all the great synths and DAWs available for the iOS platform, but many of us have been waiting for a major notation program (Notion iOS has always been very good, although it’s not given the credit it deserves - I’ve composed entire film scores in Notion iOS, so there ya go…), but even more pressing was the lack of 3rd party orchestral instruments. Until now! SWAM instruments are the missing link. They are AMAZING! Seriously. A++ Sure, we could use ensembles and stage positioning, (mic positions, impulse responses or both), and that’s ok, because iPad OS has become a rapidly evolving platform with the introduction of the Apple M1 SoC, so everything will be fine in tine. Within just the last year we saw Notion iOS, Symphony 6, Dorico for iPad OS, StaffPad for iPad and Sibelius for iPad OS, (where ya at Finale???!!! - I knew you guys were going to blow it - unbelievable 🙄). And then SWAM showed up and WOW! VERDICT: Right now, for serious work, the combination of Dorico and SWAM instruments brought the iPad into the “pro league”. Yeah, I can score a cue on a park bench. It’s a cliche I know. But I do it and it’s glorious! It’s liberating. It’s changed my workflow. My compositional output has increased exponentially. The iPad Pro with Dorico and SWAM is as important as the Mac and Finale was back in the day. When Cubasis can import video, and SWAM gets staging, I’ll probably take my iPad Pro to Yosemite, and never return! Thank you AudioModeling, Steinberg, Presonus, Moog, and Apple! You’ve changed the world of composing.

I use a MIDI breath controller called the DM48 digital harmonica. Nothing comes close to these sounds, even surpassing my VL70 turbo module- which has been the best modeled brass used by breath control folks for many years. (Ewi’s, etc) My live rig is now an ipad and a Roland Cube, versus a rather hefty rack of modules and a mixing board. Take the time to tweak the sounds, there are an infinite number of nuances you can implement, mutes, growls, overblows, and even the specific tone for just your default horn. It’s easy to save presets, I have some that are set up just for particular songs. For me, this is a big game changer, I’ve been waiting for the IOS versions to drop- so glad they’re here!!!

For some reason I can never review the bundles I’ve bought, but I. Pretty Much am only missing the saxophones as of now and am only missing them cause d..... are these instruments expensive! Now, don’t get me wrong, they are MORE THAN WORTH IT, but releasing 300+ dollars of plugins in a single month is a hard thing to keep up with as a lover/consumer of Audio Modeling. If you need actual expressivity from the instruments you want to use, the ones offered by Audio Modeling are and will probably be the closest to reality you will get, as of now and for a long time. These instruments are just fantastic. What I’d like to see: -iPhone version (a long time ago I was told this was on the works, hopefully it still is) -3D Touch on iPhones as a source for modulation (like geoshred or Ifretlessbass) -Guitars, please guitars and basses! Note: some user is giving these apps bad reviews based on their usage in GarageBand.... please ignore these, they are not too informed on the matter: GarageBand is completely useless, If you’re spending 20+ dollars on one of these instruments PLEASE make yourself a favor and choose a better daw. Most of these are at most worth 20 dollars themselves. No point in blaming audio modeling for the terrible usability of an Apple app. Get NanoStudio, AUM, AoeMatrix, Audio Evolution Mobile Pro... so many options, just switch already. Second point: the same user mentions that the issues he has are probably never going to be fixed as they would have to be fixed for all Audio Modeling Apps... yes, he is right about the second part, but as a programmer I can guarantee you it is precisely the fact that they all pretty much are the same app with different instruments as their only variation, that allows devs to fix ALL issues for ALL apps in parallel. It’s not like they have to fix the same mistake 30 times, they fix it once and then re-publish the apps, that’s all. So any issues you might have with these apps, WILL probably be fixed rather ASAP IMO.