SWAM Oboe

What it does

A physically modelled oboe rather than a sampled one, with expression, velocity, vibrato, growl, breath noise and key noise shaping the note as it sounds, all of them MIDI learnable. A timbre page steps through warm and bright versions, effects, master tuning and transpose are built in, and an onscreen play surface covers anyone without a controller. Enabling virtual MIDI ports in the settings lets other apps drive the standalone version. Standalone and AUv3.

In the demo

Jade uses the oboe to show the GeoShred route. She turns on virtual MIDI ports, restarts the app, then sets GeoShred to MIDI out and picks the oboe as its destination, so the finger expression surface drives expression and flutter with no keyboard involved. She comes back to it later over a jazz backing.

Worth knowing

Sold separately, with a Double Reeds bundle covering it, the bassoon, contrabassoon and English horn. The free GeoShred download makes a workable controller for anyone with no keyboard or pedal.