SWAM English Horn

What it does

A physically modelled English horn, the tenor of the oboe family, built from a model instead of samples so the playing does the shaping. Expression, velocity, vibrato, growl, breath noise and key noise all sit on the panel and take MIDI learn, a timbre page steps through warm and bright versions, and effects, master tuning, transpose and an onscreen play surface are built in. It runs standalone and as an AUv3.

In the demo

Jade takes it after the bassoons, plays over the jazz backing she uses through the show, and steps through the variations to point out where more breath comes into the tone. As with the rest of the episode she is playing from a keyboard with an expression pedal underfoot and growl mapped to a knob.

Worth knowing

One of the four SWAM double reeds, each sold on its own, with a Double Reeds bundle covering the group. It overlaps closely with the oboe, so most people will want one or the other rather than both.